Lelucia of the Rebellion
by ChikaiItachi
Summary: A somewhat abridged series retelling with a female Lelouch (Lelucia) and a male Nunnally (Nannaru). The main pairing is Suzaku x Lelucia. The story takes turns between the points of view of different characters, most Suzaku and Lelucia.
1. Prologue: The Place Known as The Present

**Prologue: The Place Known As The Present**

Sometimes, memories I don't like to recall become lost in the dark currents swirling in my mind, and I'm no longer able to catch hold of them, look at them, confirm their contents, or accept their existence. I don't remember stabbing my father, the Souri-Daijin of Japan before it became Area Eleven. I only vaguely remember when Euphie died; it's all blurry in my mind, and hopelessly mixed up with the nightmares that closely followed the events of that bloody day. I don't remember the battle above Tokyo where Lelucia's curse forced me to fire the FLEIJA warhead on the people of my own country. Human memory is awfully convenient, you must be thinking. People forget the painful parts of life. Yet that's not always true. There's a clear exception in my own life. Significant memories involving the presence of Lelucia, whether painful, frustrating, sickening, or joyous, remain ever clear in my mind.

That's why I can close my eyes at any time and see the day when I stabbed the World Empress Lelucia vi Britannia. See, she sits atop a throne on an open vehicle at the center of the parade of troops and Knightmares. She looks as cold and relaxed as her half-sister Cornelia—no, colder. There is almost no trace of the light of humanity left in the Empress' brilliant violet eyes. Over her slender body, with its soft, pale skin, she wears a dazzling gown of white with gold trimming. I know her better than anyone, but not even I can tell what she might be feeling as she contemplates the painful experience she is about to undertake. As I ready myself for the task, donning Zero's black cloak, I can hear the frightened and frustrated murmurs of the crowd. I can feel the September sun, quickly making my disguise uncomfortably warm. I can smell the smoke from old-timey rifles fired in a salute of allegiance. I taste blood because I bit my lip while thinking about the duty before me.

Every detail is vibrant: the way I make my entrance, with Zero's cape caught up in the wind and flowing out behind me; the adrenaline pumping through my athletic body as I run at nearly super-human speed, easily dodging the gunshots of the royal guard, which were poorly aimed on purpose; and the gasping from the crowd as I leap onto the Empress' vehicle, dash up the slope to her platform, and ready my sword. Lelucia is a marvelous actress; she looks both terrified and enraged as I approach. When she attempts to draw her gun, I disarm her flawlessly. Brandishing my sword, I hesitate for just a fraction of a second—and she shows a knowing smile—before I lunge forward and drive the long, cruel blade through the Empress' thin body.

Her eyes go wide as the blade comes out the other side of her body, through her back. Lelucia doesn't make a sound. She swoons, almost falling, but catching herself on me. The Empress clings to my body as her marvelous white-and-gold attire changes to deep crimson with the blood she is speedily losing. And as her elegant but bloody hands grasp the mask over my head, we exchange a few words. These also, I remember in exacting detail.

"This, too, is your punishment," she whispers. "Forced to keep living, you will wear a mask and continue to act as an ally of justice. You won't be allowed to live as Kururugi Suzaku. You'll give everything you have for the happiness of the world, for all eternity. It is a cruel Geass, a painful prayer, which I place upon you now."

Under my mask, tears are flowing from my eyes. I can taste salt as well as blood. I know the words I'm supposed to say: "This Geass I do accept." But I can't say those words. There's a lump in my throat. If I speak, it will show without a doubt that I am weeping. And I'm not willing to accept the fate that my Empress describes. So I tell her in my quaking voice,

"Let me save a little of myself to keep from the world. That little bit belongs to you, and you alone, for as long as we live. And both of us shall live, Lelucia. This is not the end."

"Typical Suzaku." The Empress tries to chuckle, but can only gasp in pain before shakily continuing. "You've always been so selfish, deep down, at heart. I've made you go through with stabbing me. We've made a show of it. But of course, you don't intend to let me die peacefully here."

"That's right." The tears have stopped and my voice is like stone. "I forbid you to die. As planned, I'll take you away with me in the chaos that will follow. The body double is prepared. The medics I hired in secret lie in wait at our secret location. Now, Lelucia, finish this noble play. Go say goodbye to Nunnaru."

With that, I pull the sword out of my lover's body and swing it once to scatter the blood, just for show. Lelucia falls forward and slides down the incline to the base of the vehicle, leaving a trail of blood behind her. There below the platform, the Empress' little brother Nunnaru is waiting, wearing only a light, loose, bright red kimono, along with the black chains holding him in place. The young boy would have every right to hate the Empress after all she had done to the world, and after she had put her own little brother on display like a trophy. But as I watch, Nunnaru exchanges a few words with Lelucia and begins to cry piteously when she passes out. That's Nunnaru for you: even now, he loves his big sister.

As I think back and remember that day, I'm sitting by the bedside where Lelucia sleeps, her top half bare except for the bandages covering the wound in the center of her chest, between her modest but beautiful breasts. Two weeks have passed since the day the Empress "died." I took her to a safe-house in a small Britannian town near the crater that had once been the country's capital, Pendragon. Nobody would expect to find us here. I'm still expected to play the role of Zero for the world, and I've been constantly caught up in the political chaos of the major countries trying to decide what will happen now that the Demon Empress is "dead." It sounds like Nunnaru will become the hundredth ruler of Britannia, while the other countries will self-govern again, and both will rely solely on the Black Knights as the enforcers of justice, rather than forming their own armies or weapons.

Trying to set the world to rights has taken up most of my time. This is the first time I've gotten the chance to come and see Lelucia since I first brought her here two weeks ago. I'm relieved beyond words to see that she's healing up so well. Privately, I wish blessings on Nunnaru, who was the one who gave me a few days off and ordered that nobody interfere with me. He knows that I, Suzaku, am playing the role of Zero, but he remains in the dark regarding the fact that the Demon Empress is still alive and under my watch. I can still hardly believe it all worked out. There were a few close calls. Kallen almost followed me here, but I managed to shake her off. Lelucia almost died from blood loss, but I helped save her with a transfusion using my own blood.

Staying in the safe-house with Lelucia and I are the three helpers who made our escape together possible: Doctor Rupert Evans, Sayoko Shinozaki, and the former Lloyd Asplundh. Evans-sensei used to be the personal physician of Lelucia and Nunnaru when they were still treated as royalty in their homeland more than 8 years ago, and possesses an undying loyalty to the children of Lady Marianne. It's thanks to him that Lelucia lived despite such a serious wound and having lost so much blood. Miss Sayoko has been part of our plan almost from the beginning, and I believe her loyalty is also unquestionable.

As for Lloyd, he helped us by supplying funds, installing a security system in the safe-house, and supporting my cover-story when we are questioned by political leaders or the public. (Our cover story so far is that Zero has gone with Lloyd to see some of his tests and experiments with new technology. Even if somebody finds out I'm staying at this particular safe-house, Lloyd will be with me and we'll simply tell everyone that this is a private outpost where he conducts experiments.) To be honest, I cannot find it in me to trust completely in the former Earl. After all, he was never particularly loyal to anyone. If anyone spills our secret, it's likely to be him. If the slightest of clues suggest to me that he has betrayed my secret plan, I will have no choice but to kill Lloyd Asplundh.

"Suzaku? Is that really you, Suzaku?"

The voice is weak and faint, not at all what I had expected to hear from Lelucia at this point in her recovery. She sits up in her bed, with her short, black hair spiky and unruly. She's lost some weight and looks almost alarmingly thin, but a smile settles on her face wan, weary face. When the gaze of her violet eyes rests on me, I feel alive again for the first time in two weeks. It's only natural for Lelucia to still be weak, I remind myself; even if she hadn't been so gravely wounded, she would have to start coming to terms with the fact that the world believed she was dead, and she would have no chance of seeing Nunnaru or Kallen or anyone else she loved, besides Sayoko, and course, me. That thought emboldens me. I take Lelucia's long, delicate right hand into both my own larger, darker, and rougher hands. I whisper her name, but I feel completely at a loss about what to say next.

"It's—it's really me," I stammer, lamely. "I'm… right here."

For just a second, the former Empress squeezes my hand, but the pulls hers away. "My, my, I'm not even wearing a hospital gown. This is embarrassing." So she says, but I can tell her voice is dripping with sarcasm. She has never been particularly modest; even shirtless, wearing only bandages and plain white panties, she's not the least bit ashamed. "Suzaku, how indecent of you to come into a lady's room while she is undressed and laid up in bed. It's not befitting of a knight of integrity."

"We both know that's not who I am," I answer, a bit stiffly. "I wouldn't claim to be knightly after all I've done. And you've got no business pretending to be a refined lady. You're not feminine at all."

"If I'm so unlike a woman," Lelucia asks pointedly, "why are you blushing like a fifteen year old virgin?"

"That's—it's not—I… ugn!" The truth of her words makes me angry. In turn, that anger only serves to redden my face further. "You're impossible, Lelucia."

The remark causes the dark-haired woman to laugh. It's not exactly a sweet or feminine laugh, but it's not her over-the-top "villain" laugh either; it's genuine. As she casually puts on the hospital gown left by the foot of her bed, Lelucia replies to me. "I don't plan to stop being incorrigible for your sake or anyone else's, for that matter. I'm a devil, to be sure, and it's impossible for normal people to put up with me. But you're not a normal person, Suzaku. You want to have me around. I've lost track of how many times you've saved my life. I hear it was a transfusion using your blood that allowed to me survive. But I'm sure keeping me alive is just your way of torturing me, right?"

I know she's not being completely serious, but she sounds just serious enough to tick me off. "I won't have you talking like that," I say, and though my tone is harsh, my green eyes are tearing up. I sit on the side of the bed, turn my upper body to face Lelucia, grab her shoulder, and force her to lie down again. I'm leaning over her with one hand supporting me, holding my upper body a few inches above hers. My other hand leaves her shoulder and starts stroking her black hair. I tell her what I'm thinking.

"I fooled the world into believing you are dead, and I agreed to play the new Zero, all so I could be together with you. The day I stabbed you was probably the hardest day of my life. Maybe harder than the day Euphie died. The plan all along was for you to secretly live, but I still had to stab you. There was always the chance that I would actually kill you. I was terrified." The emotion is strong in my voice, and a tear falls from my eye onto Lelucia's face. "So now that you're alive, and healing," I finish, "don't you dare say that living is like torture!"

To my surprise, Lelucia raises her head and quickly presses her soft lips against mine. The kiss is over in a second. I instantly find myself wanting more. But the woman I love gently puts a finger up to my mouth, telling me to let her speak. "I wasn't serious, Suzaku. In times like these, I'm reminded of how death is so dismally final, and so entirely empty. Even I, the conqueror of the world, am shaken to my roots by the terror and loneliness of being close to death. I can't honestly claim to want to die. Of course, part of me knows I'm not worthy of living after all I've done. But I have someone with me who understands those feelings perfectly. Perhaps life is indeed torture. It's much less painful, however, when you have that special person who understands you."

Giving Lelucia a kiss on the forehead, I withdraw, realizing she isn't well enough to fool around physically. I wipe my eyes to make sure there are no more tears, and I muster up a weak smile. "I understand you better than anyone in the world," I tell her. "We've been through so much together. There were times when I hated your guts. There are times I still do. But at the end of the day, I always think of you fondly. I want to be with you. I love you, Lelucia."

"My feelings are the same," the woman admits. "And we really have been through so much, hating and loving each other in equal parts. We were ten when we first met. Isn't that right? You were so cute and stubborn, back then."

Together, Lelucia and I reminisce about the past, laughing at the good parts, and reflecting quietly on the bad. Perhaps I'd better explain our story to you. The story of how we got to where we are today. The story of the many joys, loves, pains, sorrows, journeys, deaths, wars, victories, and losses that drove us together. Lelucia and I have been connected in some strange, fateful way ever since we met. We have been friends, rivals, enemies, classmates, traitors, co-conspirators, and lovers over the course of the last eight or nine years. Let us both tell you about our lives leading up to now, to this seemingly impossible place called the present, wherein we are finally together, happy to love one another.


	2. 1: The Banished Princess

**1: The Banished Princess (Lelucia's Point of view)**

Perhaps it was just my imagination, but on the day when my mother died, I woke up with a strange queasiness in my stomach and an unsettling sense that something just wasn't right. It was early spring and I had just turned ten the previous December. I went about my day as usual: breakfast with Nannaru and Mother, etiquette lessons with Lady Alstreim, general education lessons with my tutor Earl Georg Samwell, and then some free time, which I had hoped to use playing with Nannaru. I loved my one and only precious baby brother more than anything. That day, however, my half-brother Clovis la Britannia visited Areis Villa, and I was expected to go spend time with him.

This task vexed me, because Clovis was easily my least favorite out of all my numerous half-siblings. He was spoiled, bossy, rude, prideful, overly concerned with his looks, and not even half as smart as me. Despite being six or seven years my senior, he still acted like a petty child. During this visit, Clovis bullied me into playing sword-fighting with willow sticks out in the gardens. I was soundly beaten, with several scratches and a light bruise. For revenge, I made him play one round each of chess, poker, and battleship, winning every match easily. Clovis grew red with embarrassment and frustration, and soon after, he told me I was free to return to my mother and brother.

It was that time of the afternoon when everyone seemed sleepy and everything in the villa seemed quiet, with everyone busy at their work. I searched the third and second floors of the miniature palace, hoping to catch Nannaru and Mother. A maidservant informed me they had had just left the nursery room a few minutes ago, and were on their way downstairs for a walk in the garden. I hurried to try to catch up with them. I walked down the second floor hallway, leading to the balcony-like landing which was connected to entrance chamber below by a set of stairs with red carpet.

That's when it happened. Mother and Nannaru were walking down the steps. The sound of gunfire mingled with the sound of the shattering stained-glass windows on the first floor. Then my mother's scream and Nannaru's cries joined the cacophony of horrific sound. Lady Marriane vi Britannia was shot down before my very eyes. She tried to shield little Nannaru with her body, but I learned later that both of my brother's legs were shot.

The gunfire stopped and my mother lay unmoving on the stairs with blood gathering under her and dripping down the steps, making the crimson carpet even darker red. Nunnaru, half crushed beneath her, had gone silent in shock, staring at nothing with eyes and mouth wide open. Below, on the first floor, seven-year-old Anya, the daughter of Lady Alstreim, passed out. The sudden, bizarre attack was just too much. As for me, I stood at the top of the steps with my ears ringing, my heart thundering, and my thin body visibly trembling. A scream ripped out from deep in my lungs, quite involuntarily. I didn't even know I was capable of screaming so loudly. Then the scent of blood clouded the air, and I started to feel like throwing up.

After that, Lady Alstreim and the servants came running, but I don't remember much else. The rest of the day was a blur. I know I ran to the medical building, and barged into Nannaru's room where the nurses and Doctor Evans were preparing to operate. I remember my father arriving and telling me to leave Nannaru's side. He must have also told me that my mother was dead, but I don't remember that part. I felt far removed from reality and from the people bustling around me. At the end of the day, Doctor Evans came and told me that Nannaru would never walk again, and that she couldn't see either.

That night, I was coddled and comforted by servants and nursemaids, but I yelled at them all to leave me alone. I lay down in my bed like usual, but didn't sleep for a single moment. I was awake all night, crying. Even as a small child, I had a ridiculous sense of pride and the desire to be perceived as strong rather than feminine. This time, however, I cried my heart out, not caring if the entire palace heard me. Even the greatest of poets and the masters of human psychology have trouble finding words sufficient to describing the misery and emptiness of sudden bereavement—especially the loss of one's mother.

When the sun started to rise, I climbed out of bed and found that I couldn't cry anymore even if I tried. The sadness was still there, but it was pushed to a secondary position in favor of a different emotion: a raw, powerful, and childish emotion: rage. I was infuriated. Even if she had started as just another consort, Mother had been the current Empress at that time. Father loved her that much. Or so he claimed. How, then, could he let this happen? Hatred for my father boiled in the dark pit of my heart.

My relationship with the Emperor could not be called a loving one. Though he often came from the Britannia Central Palace to the Villa at Aries to see me, my mother, and Nannaru, the great man always stayed emotionally distant. I have only a few vague memories of ever seeing him smile. He criticized Nannaru and I harshly, and expected us to understand things that were way over our head. He also tried to beat respect into us, both figuratively and literally. That only made me respect him less. Worst of all, after that initial check on Nannaru in the medical building, he did not come to visit his youngest son. Not for two days, while she was still in the intensive care unit. That anyone of my own flesh and blood could care so little about Nannaru was unthinkable to me. He didn't seem to be grieving my mother, either.

Everyone around me told me that it would be several days before I would granted an audience with the Emperor, Charles zi Britannia. Order, etiquette, and respect for the Emperor could all go to hell, I thought. Thus, two days after my mother's death, I walked into the throne room unannounced, interrupting a meeting between my father and an entire crowd of courtiers. When I barged in on the royal proceedings that day, I looked at my father with hot animosity and not the least bit of deference. I started by saying that Lady Marianne had passed away, and my father immediately asked, with contempt in his voice, if that was "all" I had come to say. As if he didn't care. As if it meant nothing.

"Bring me the next courtier," Charles said to an aide. "I have no time to play with children."

"Father!" I screamed, running up toward the dais with a murderous light in my eyes. Two guards barred the way with terrible spears, or else I would have gone up even closer. "Why did you not protect Mother?" I demanded. "You're the Emperor, are you not? You're the greatest man in the country, are you not? You should have been able to protect her! And you could have at least visited Nannaru!"

"I have no use for the weak," Charles stated simply.

The anger on my face gave way to a look of astonishment, of disbelief. "The weak?" I repeated.

"Yes. That is the true nature of the Royal Family." My father stared down at me unblinkingly.

The rage came back all at once, a feeling so powerful it made me shake visibly. I was not usually a violent person, but for the first time, I wanted to hit my father. I told him in a ragged voice, "If that's how things really are, then I don't even want the right to succeed the throne. I've had enough of it! I won't succeed you or get into any more family conflicts!"

Charles vi Britannia then said, "You are dead." After a pause, he went on. "You have been dead since the day you were born. Who gave you the clothes you wear on your back? Your home, your food, and even your life? I am the one who gave all those things to you. In other words, you have never once been truly alive. And yet," his deep, strong voice rose to a shout, "and yet you show such insolence!"

When he stood up suddenly, I was so frightened I stumbled backward off the dais and landed on my rump. I didn't even have time to be embarrassed about the squeaky gasp that had escaped me, because he continued,

"Lelucia! A dead person like you has no rights. I sentence you go to Japan with Nannaru. As a Princess and a young Prince, you are good trading materials."

Our talk then came to an abrupt end as my father signaled one of the guards. The armored spearman lifted me bodily off the ground by the collar of my red cape. I kicked and screamed like a wild animal until the guard literally threw me onto the stone paving outside the throne chambers. I could hear the court, behind me, laughing.

Part of me realized I might be able to undo this terrible situation if I begged and apologized enough, but I have never been that kind of person. So what if father's word was final? So what if my brother and I had been banished? We would be given to the Japanese Government, because Britannia was currently negotiating with that country, trying to get its Sakuradite resources. Mother would not be there to protect us. We wouldn't even be able to speak the language at first. But so what? I was confident I could still protect Nannaru. And if even Lady Marianne could be murdered in her own home, then it was no safer here than in Japan. Even being banished and used as a political tool sounded better to me than staying in the same city with a creature as brutal and pitiless as my father. I hoped I would never return. I decided then and there that I hated the Britannian Royal family, and I was ashamed to be part of it.

****Line Break****

Several months had passed and spring rolled into summer. By mid-July 2010, Nannaru and I had more or less settled down at the Ashford family's large house in Japan. Mr. and Mrs. Ashford lost most of their good standing with the Britannian court and were losing their fortune too, but nevertheless, they had loved Lady Marianne, and wanted to help her children. They gave us a temporary place to stay and provided food and clothing. Naturally, I felt sincerely grateful, but my gratitude was mixed up with the shame I felt for relying on others yet again, and so my honest feelings didn't show. I prefer to hide how I actually feel most of the time. The habit started after my banishment and is still with me to this day.

The Ashfords worked together with the Souri-Daijin of Japan for a plan that would keep Nannaru and I from being targeted by people who might want to kill us or kidnap us for ransom. The adults explained that my brother and I would be taking on the false last name of Lamperouge to cover up the truth of our royal heritage. It was the Ashford family's plan, and the Prime Minister agreed to it so long as Nannaru and I stayed close by and agreed to try to plead with our father in the event of an invasion. Of course, no amount of pleading from his sons and daughters could ever change the mind of Charles zi Britannia, but we decided to wait and let the Souri-Daijin see that for himself in due time. We didn't know that the Britannian invasion of Japan would be starting in only month. We had no idea how savagely they would attack and subjugate the Japanese; we mistakenly thought Japan and Britannia could be allies.

Even though I was only ten, I thought about politics and war much more than most children my age. A good deal of my thought was also consumed with Nunnaru, who couldn't walk or see, and had to rely on others for everything. Sometimes, it was unbearable to look at him, because I felt that what happened was somehow my fault. Or maybe I thought that I should have begged my father for mercy after all, just for Nannaru's sake. That way, he wouldn't be at such a loss, so alone, and so far away from home. I don't know exactly what I was thinking, but I was angry and depressed. One day, I couldn't stand it anymore and set off for a long hike in the woods behind the Ashford Estate. I have never been an outdoors person, so this was quite out of character for me. Of course, I ended up hopelessly lost.

After walking around most of the day and growing increasingly confused as to how to get back, I came across another child my age. He was about average height and weight for his age, but his arms, though thin, were finely toned, and his excellent balance and command of motion was apparent from his footing alone. His hair milk-chocolate-colored hair looked shorter and spikier than mine. His eyes were forest-green, and from his expression, one could tell that he was indomitably stubborn. I thought he looked concurrently adorable and intimidating.

"Excuse me," I said, breathlessly running up the trail to meet the boy. "Do you know which trail goes back to the Ashford Estate?"

At once, the boy glared at me. He thrust out his chest and put his hands on his hips. "What the hell are you doing here?" he demanded. He was speaking Japanese, but I had learned a lot of the language very quickly, as children often do. "This is Kururugi property! Do you think you can just go wherever you want? You're trespassing. There should'a been signs along the trails. Can't you read?"

I felt annoyed at his obvious bellicosity, but I tried to sound as pleasant as possible. "Actually, I'm from Britannia. So I did see some signs, but I couldn't read the kanji. I got lost and I was hoping..."

"So you're a Britannian, huh?" the boy interrupted, taking a bold step closer to me. He spat on the ground. "Disgusting. You must think you're better than everyone else. You must think Japanese people are like apes. That's what Britannians are like."

Backing away nervously, I managed to say shakily, "I—I don't think insulting me was c-called for. I didn't mean to trespass. And I don't think that way about the Japanese."

"That's what you say." The obnoxious boy was squinting suspiciously at me like I had demon horns on my head. "But you look to me like you think you're some kind of princess. Well. Maybe everybody just did what you told them, and answered all your questions, back in Britannia. But that's not how it's gonna be here. I bet you've never been in a real fight, not even with other girls. Hmph. I'm warning you, I'm learning three martial arts plus kendo."

The conversation wasn't going in the direction I had hoped for. "I want to settle this in a civilized way," I told the boy with an uneasy smile. "Let's start over. What's your name?"

"My name? Hmph! Rude." The green-eyed kid moved closer to me, drawing himself up to his full height, and cracking his knuckles menacingly. "In this country, if you're going to ask someone's name, you give them your name first! Don't you Britannians know anything?! It's like you're asking for a fight. If you were a boy, I'd just hit you."

"You seem pretty angry regardless of what I say," I observed. Of course, boys his age had plenty to be angsty about, especially if they were naturally prone to aggression. "So if it will make you feel better," I offered, "you can hit me. I may be a girl, who grow up in a Britannian palace, but I've been hit before. I've never felt very girly. In fact, maybe it would be better if you just thought of me as a guy."

The simple-minded boy took my words quite literally. He proceeded to punch me in the gut, temporarily taking my breath away, and making me fall down onto the dusty trail. It was the first time I had been winded and knocked completely off my feet.

"I knew it." The boy clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Just one simple, straight punch and you go right down. You don't even know how to break your fall. I was right; you've never been in a real fight." He gave me his hand and pulled me up. His face was reddening; perhaps he had acted impulsively, and now regretted it. But he said, "You asked for that, so don't you dare start crying."

"I don't cry," I replied, trying to save what was left of my dignity. "Not in front of other people, anyway. So? Do you feel better, now that you've hit me? To show you I'm not like other Britannians, I'll tell you a secret. Even though I'm a Britannian Princess, Lelucia vi Britannia, I actually hate that rotten country. I hate my family too—all except for my little brother, Nannaru."

Those words made the boy's attitude change abruptly. First he looked shocked, and then he blushed deeper red than before. He scratched at his hair, stammering, "Wait, wait. I'm... I didn't realize... ugn. Listen." He straightened up and unclenched his fists. "I'm sorry for hitting you and being aggressive. I'm Kururugi Suzaku, the son of the Souri-Daijin of Japan. My father told me some Britannian royalty would be coming because they were banished. He said they aren't like other Britannians, but I didn't believe him. Also, I know Mr. and Mrs. Ashford. The Daijin is on good terms with that family. They're working together so you and your brother will be safe here in Japan. So, um... now I see that you're real... and you really are a banished princess... and... Again, I'm sorry." He ended his rant with a growl of, "But you did kind of ask to be hit!"

"Hahaha!" My laugh was genuine, despite the pain lingering in my stomach area. "I know I did. To be honest, sometimes I hate myself because I'm related to the Emperor Charles." It was much easier to be truthful back then, when I was only ten. Besides, I didn't think I would ever see this boy again, so telling him my true thoughts could do no harm. "Sometimes I want to hit myself because of it. But I can't even throw a real punch. I guess what I'm saying is I was looking for someone to hit me."

"That's messed up." When Kururugi Suzaku made statements like that, he was always completely convinced he was right, beyond a shadow of a doubt. "Now listen. You're a girl, and a skinny little stick of a girl, too. But that doesn't mean you can't defend yourself. Many martial arts were created for people who are at a strength disadvantage. Why don't you come visit the Dojo? It's only half a mile from here. I can teach you how break-fall at the very least. And if you keep coming back, I'll teach you some self-defense that even someone like you can do."

"I'm... I'm really grateful." It's true. I was appreciative, but more than that, I was embarrassed about what I had to say next. I was exhausted and dizzy, and my stomach hurt. "But I'm afraid..." I tried desperately to find words. "Well... you see… I've already walked for what felt like miles, and I'm lost. The Ashfords are probably worried about me, and I'm worried about leaving Nannaru alone all day. I'd love to visit the Dojo—maybe tomorrow—but for now, I have to get back to the Ashford Estate."

"Hmm. It's a longer walk back to the Ashford's than it is to the Dojo. And you look ready to faint. Ok, Princess." Suzaku opened the canteen that hung by a strap over his shoulder, and offered me a sip. The water was lukewarm, but still extremely refreshing after hours and hours of no hydration. When I finished drinking, Suzaku took one of my arms and placed it over his shoulders, supporting my body with his. It took half the weight off of me, and I felt strangely giddy. "I'll help you get back," the boy stated. "There's no way I could let you go back alone the way you are now. Don't be embarrassed, Princess."

"Could you please stop calling me Princess?" I requested, happy but blushing red as a tomato. "It's humiliating. And, it's also supposed to be a secret. I have to take on a new name and pretend I was never royalty. Just call me Lelucia. And I'm sorry, but I can't let you do this much just for me. All you need to do is tell me which way to go. I'll be fine."

"Don't be an ass," said Kururugi Suzaku, beginning to walk forward as he supported me. "This isn't an especially big favor. It's just common courtesy. We're very polite and helpful in this country, you know. We don't trample all over each other like the Britannians. Of course I'll help you, Princess. If it makes you feel better, think of it this way. I'm not doing it for you. I'm doing it because of my pride as a Japanese person."

Like I thought, he was stubborn. "I suppose I can't argue. …Um, thank you, Kururugi-san."

"You can call me Suzaku. It means Phoenix. Pretty cool, isn't it, _Princess_?" He added the last word with a grin and a wink, clearly teasing me.

It was dark when the two of us finally reached the Ashford Estate. I invited Suzaku in for dinner, and Mrs. Ashford said he should stay the night. The boy called his father and got permission to sleep over. The two of us, plus Nannaru, shared the same room, each of rolled up in traditional Japanese futons. Nobody thought it was weird for us all to sleep in the same room next to each other because, after all, we were only ten (or six, in Nunnaru's case).

I was so tired from the day's excursion that I felt like falling asleep as soon as I hit the futon. As I drifted off to sleep, I suddenly realized this was the first time I had slept in the same room with anyone besides Nannaru. I thought it would annoy me, but strangely enough, I actually enjoyed it. I felt safer this way, somehow. And I knew I would be seeing a lot more of Suzaku in the days to come. I went to great lengths to hide the absolute joy I felt during those first few days together; for the first time in my life, I had made a friend, and it was someone I liked being around.


	3. 2: When the World Collapses

**2: When the World Collapses (Suzaku's Point of View)**

The Ashford Estate, General Tohdoh's Dojo, and the Kururugi Summer Home were each located within three miles of each other near the base of Mount Fuji. Between and behind them, marching up the mountain slopes, were dozens of acres of magnificent forests. Most of the trees were old and stately. A good amount of wildlife, from chika deer to Hercules beetles, made this habitat their home. Half a dozen foot-trails wound their way throughout the area, over little streams bordered by moss-covered rocks, past small waterfalls pouring down from the higher slopes, and through small glades of wildflowers. Lelucia and I spent a lot of time in those woods from the day we met on July 17th to the day the invasion started on August 10th.

Lelucia said she wasn't much of an outdoors person, but she had a decent eye for beauty, and there was one glen I showed her that she liked better than all the others. There, free of the shade of the ancient trees, a large patch of sunflowers flourished on a space on relatively level ground. Lelucia liked walking among the tall, bright-colored flowers, enjoying their faint scent, and basking in the direct sunlight. The banished Princess was a tomboy in some ways, and for whatever reason, she seemed to want to prove that she was tough. Being with me in the sunflower field seemed to make her a little uneasy, since by enjoying this place, she was patently proving her feminine side. I thought seeing Lelucia like this was cute and didn't hold it against her in the slightest.

She and I were constantly in each other's company, since our educations were on hold for the summer and neither of us had any other real friends. Besides playing and hiking in the woods, Lelucia and I also spent time attending lessons at the Dojo, where the skinny Princess tried her best to learn a few bare-minimum self-defense moves. Additionally, we frequently visited the Ashford Estate to eat, talk with Nannaru, and play board games and cards. Lelucia always won those, of course. As for Nannaru, he took an immediate liking to me, and I enjoyed playing with the young boy and giving him piggy-back rides.

A few times, at Nannaru's request, we took him to the woods with us. Even though he couldn't see, Lelucia's little brother said the forest was beautiful. He had a great ear for identifying wild birds by their songs and cries. He loved the feeling of sitting among the sunflowers even more than his sister did. Sometimes I thought Nannaru was more feminine than Lelucia. Of course, I still far out-played her in terms of all things tradtionally masculine. It was I who always carried Nannaru on my back when the three of us went to the forest. Lelucia could have carried the petite six-year-old boy herself, but only for short distances. I felt proud of myself carrying the lame child around without difficulty. I was growing stronger by the day.

The days spent with my new friends were blissful. You see, I didn't get along with my father, so I wasn't happy at home, and while I loved learning martial arts with General Tohdoh, I also wanted companionship free of formalities (and bruises). I would blush and deny it when asked directly, but I was delighted to be with Lelucia and her little brother. I grew very fond of them very fast, and I believe the feelings were mutual. Nannaru loved visiting the woods, riding on my back, and questioning me non-stop about the culture, history, and language of Japan. Because her little brother was so joyful, Lelucia also allowed herself to feel blithe and untroubled for a short time.

"Hey," I said on August 10th, when Lelucia and I were in the woods. "Is it just me? Or do you hear that? Something's rumbling."

"All I hear are the damn cicadas," replied Lelucia in her high-pitched voice. She hated large insects.

"There's something else behind the sound of the cicadas," I insisted. "I wonder if it's a fleet of our jets. Let's get to a clearing with a good view."

We ran up a tree-covered slope. Above that there was an almost sheer wall of rock about eighteen feet high. Without hesitating, I began to scale the wall, knowing there would be a good view of Mount Fuji from there. Lelucia lagged behind and was clumsier with climbing. Finally, I gave her a hand up, and we both looked to the skies around and above the mountain.

What we saw were war jets, and they did not belong to the Japanese army. Lelucia at once recognized them as Britannian. There were hundreds of them. They were passing over Mount Fuji, probably getting ready to veer northeast toward Tokyo. I had heard my father express fear many times that Britannia would invade, but seeing it happen was somehow unreal.

Over the next few days, it became clear that our fears had come true. Britannia declared war on Japan. The fighting started at multiple locations along the shorelines of the archipelago. My father, the Daijin, became insanely busy trying to prepare the military and keep the citizens calm. He had one other critically important job, too: making sure the main group of politicians and legislatures wouldn't flee the country. The assemblymen were terrified by the might of Britannia and threatened to leave at once for neutral territory that might offer asylum.

However, Genbu Kururugi was a powerful man with an influential presence, even without his authority as Daijin. He knew exactly what to say to make people listen. Thus, for the time being, the politicians were persuaded to stay in Japan. My father convinced them with a single simple but appealing speech. In mere minutes, a crowd of angry cowards had transformed into a pack of fierce patriots. I realized for the first time that the people of Japan would stop at nothing to serve and obey Genbu Kururugi, whatever he might command.

Britannian invaders clashed with Japanese defense forces starting on the 13th. Thanks to the enemy's use of the destructive, versatile Knightmares, my country's fleets, jets, tanks, and infantry suffered immense losses. It was little more than one-sided slaughter. The Japanese were forced to retreat further in-land. While they recovered and gathered up their strength, the Britannians quickly moved toward Tokyo to invade it. In the brief time of fighting from the 13th to the 15th, no less than two thousand soldiers across numerous battlefields died, and thousands more were wounded. It became clear that winning against Britannia would be impossible. Some people began to hate the Daijin for not stopping the war right away. They urged him to call for surrender. My father, however, held off on the decision and hosted a large memorial service for fallen soldiers on the night of the 15th.

My memories of that night are vague, but I know I slipped away at some point to look for Lelucia and Nannaru. With all the chaos going on, I hadn't seen them in three days. I must have become lost. When I tried to cut through a back alley, a gang of four people tried to kidnap me, saying they would kill me unless the Prime Minister ordered a stop to the fighting. I fought for my life, using both martial arts and a combat knife I had received as a present from my father. I used that present to kill one of the kidnappers. Of course, I barely understood what I was doing; it was all like a dream. Then my father and a squad of "Secret Service" bodyguards arrived and shot down the other three kidnappers. When my father approached me, I was throwing up and crying, saying I had murdered someone.

"Murder?" scoffed Genbu without so much as looking at me. "I did hear that you killed one of the kidnappers. That was justifiable self-defense. You aren't a murderer; you're a young warrior."

"Th-Then what," I stammered, as we walked back toward shelter, "what does that make you, father? You ordered your bodyguards to shoot the other three kidnappers in cold blood. You weren't in any danger. Dad, doesn't that mean… you are the murderer?"

The Prime Minister stopped and turned around. He hit me in the face, but that was something I was used to. Then he placed a stern hand on my skinny shoulder and looked me right in the eye. He must have noticed that my face wet with tears, but he spoke without pity.

"Don't ever accuse your father of murder," he ordered. "Next time you say something like that, I'll take a bullwhip to you. Listen. I ordered those thugs to be killed because I was afraid they would kill you. Sometimes you have to kill to protect yourself, and sometimes you have to kill to protect what you believe is precious. _If someone ever puts precious lives in danger for no reason, then you kill them, Suzaku._ Kill them. Don't show mercy."

"Yes sir." My voice was just a subdued murmur. I followed my father back to safety, and after the service ended, we wearily returned home.

*****Line Break*****

After that, I tried going back to normal life, but I was frequently sick and felt like everything was a dream. Once you've killed someone, the entire world changes. Lelucia didn't know what had happened, but she could tell it was something major. She looked like she wanted to comfort me, but had no idea what to say. Of course, Lelucia had tried pleading with her father to stop the invasion, but apparently Charles vi Britannia responded by announcing to the world that Lelucia and Nannaru were dead. Even if they claimed to be royalty after that, nobody would believe them. I'm sure Lelucia must have hated her father. I was furious with mine, too.

For several days, I stopped speaking to the Daijin, enraged that he continued ordering the army to fight when they were so obviously overpowered. Though I was only ten, I understood most of what going on. In my mind, saving lives took priority over all the other duties of Japan's ruler. If Japan surrendered, the people would be treated harshly by Britannia, but at least the majority of the 130 million people would be able to live on. If the war continued, though, hundreds of thousands might die.

Cities were falling all across the country. The Britannians had enough sheer manpower to focus their invasion of five or six coastal cities at the same time. From there they moved inland. By the 25th, Tokyo had been taken over. Everyone was urging the Prime Minister to surrender before the entire Japanese military was wiped out. Another five thousand soldiers had become casualties since the 15th, and an unknown number of civilians had been killed by the malicious Britannians.

On August 28th, when everyone expected him to announce a surrender at his press conference, the Daijin called for more fighting. It was as if the soldiers and citizens being slaughtered didn't matter to him. For him, it was a do-or-die situation. He would rather see his country fighting to the last breath, losing hundreds of thousands of lives, than surrender and see them ruled by a foreign power. I couldn't understand it. I still can't. That must have been what drove me mad enough to kill my own father.

I can't remember actually doing it. My mind has locked away the memory for my own sake. But I know I did it; I murdered my father. Nothing could ever make the world right again after that. I had become an irredeemable killer. On the other hand, because I assassinated my father, and because it was chalked up to suicide, Japan was able to surrender, and thousands of lives were saved.

*****Line Break*****

I saw my father, the great Kururuhi Genbu, in a dream. He was wearing white dojo clothes: a cotton kimono and loose hakama bottoms. His hair was tied back. Except for the fact that he was at least twelve feet tall, towering over me like a giant, the picture my mind made of him was strikingly realistic. As for me, I was on my knees on the ground, trembling, my hands and wrists soaked in blood. Beside me lay the female mercenary who had tried to kidnap me the night of the memorial service.

That night, she had beaten me mercilessly with showers of punches and kicks with steel-toed boots. Before she could draw her gun and point it at me, I had pulled out my knife, leaped at her with incredible speed, and buried my blade in her neck. Now she was lying before me in the dream, but even though she was supposed to be dead, she was looking at me with wide eyes. She had no voice, but her lips mouthed the word, "Why?" At the same time, blood spurted from her neck and pooled under her body. The amount of blood grew until I found myself in a swamp of it, wading through the red, stumbling, trying to stop crying. Above me, now eighteen feet tall, loomed the figure of my father.

I wanted to cry out to him for help; I was drowning in blood, which smelled terrible, and felt startlingly warm. But when I looked up at him, tears streaming down my face, my father's expression changed from one of cold indifference to one of terror and absolute revulsion. He was afraid of me. How could he look at his own son that way? It was then I suddenly realized that I was no longer crying, but laughing hysterically. I jumped up and flew high into the air, above the gigantic Prime Minister's head. On the way back down, I drew a katana out of nowhere, and, landing on his shoulders, I drove the steel through my father's head.

His voice was loud and hoarse as he wailed in pain and dread. Why was I laughing? Or was I crying again now? I couldn't tell. A voice in my head was shrieking, _"If someone puts precious lives in danger for no reason, then you kill them, Suzaku!"_ I pulled the sword out of his head, like King Arthur pulling Excalibur from the stone, and then my father exploded like a balloon pumped to bursting. His body parts flew everywhere: limbs, entrails, and bones. I landed with a splash in the sea of blood below. And yet more blood—all of my father's—pelted down from above just like hot rain. I had killed my father. Why? I screamed in disgust and horror.

"Suzaku! Suzaku! You're dreaming. You're having a nightmare. Wake up! You're safe."

The voice that called me back to reality and tore me away from my sickening dream was that of Lelucia. She and Nannaru were looking at me anxiously, with concern clear on their faces. I sat up at once, muttering something about not needing their help. Abruptly, however, my stomach churned and I fell down on all fours, losing my last meal. It felt like I must have thrown up the entire contents of my stomach. I remembered that the dream wasn't just something my mind made up. Reality was equally sickening. I really had killed my father. I had done with a combat knife, not a katana, of course. And I had fixed it so that it looked like he killed himself.

"Take it easy, Suzaku," Lelucia said, trying to sound comforting. She massaged my back with one hand until I was able to stand on two feet again and get away from the embarrassing pile of vomit I had created. "Anyone could get sick around here," Lelucia added to make me feel better. "The air stinks."

That much was true; the smell hadn't been noticeable last night, but now that the wind that changed direction, it carried the smell of the dead. There was probably a battlefield nearby filled with corpses that nobody had the time or resources to spend cleaning up. Japan had fallen in less than a month. I tried to gather my thoughts together, pacing back and forth, while Lelucia opened a small can of pineapples for our breakfast, and Nunnaru rinsed his hands and face in a basin of river water. The three of us had spent the night outdoors, camping in the woods a safe distance from the main roads. We were on the run, and trying to reach a citizen shelter rumored to be by the river mouth.

Three days before, Knightmares and enemy jets were spotted just a few miles from the Kururugi summer home. Everyone in the district nearest Mount Fuji had tried to evacuate in a panicked rush. Everything had turned to chaos. There were stampedes of people on foot, dozens of car accidents along the clogged roads, and even some of the trains crashed. As the people desperately tried to escape, jets flew overhead dropping small but effective bombs. One of them completely decimated the Ashford Estate. I knew I had to find Lelucia.

In all the pandemonium, it was relatively easy to escape from the protective custody of the secret service and my grieving mother. On a small, virtually unused back-road, two miles from the ruins of the Ashford Estate, I found Lelucia carrying Nannaru and staggering along as best as she could. I asked them if their guardians had been caught up in the explosion that ruined the mansion. Lelucia assured me that the entire Ashford household had evacuated the house before the bombs fell. However, Mrs. Ashford was preoccupied with the safety of her little daughter Milly, and accidently lost Lelucia and her little brother in the mayhem. I then swore to see the two of them safely to the citizen shelter. It could take up to a week to get there on foot, but we had no choice. Nobody would give us transportation.

Ever since I killed my father, I have become unable to take pride in any of my accomplishments: my shame is too deeply rooted. However, I do recognize the fact that it was me who kept Lelucia and Nannaru alive for the following few days. They had no idea where to go or what to do to. I helped them by finding food—either stealing canned goods from abandoned stores, or catching fish in the streams nearby—and helping them navigate the woods and back roads in order to reach the river-mouth shelter as efficiently as possible. At any time, I could have abandoned those two siblings and gone in search of my mother and my family's elite squad of bodyguards. But by that point, I already valued the lives of Lelucia and Nannaru as much as my own, if not more.

The banished Princess realized this. On the fourth night, she spoke to me in a soft voice while we lay beside each other on a blanket. "I'll never be able to thank you enough, Suzaku," Lelucia said. I was on my right side, facing the empty darkness. Behind me, lying on her back, was Lelucia, and Nannaru slept snuggled up close to her right side. "I'm sure Nannaru and I would be hurt and starving in a gutter right now if you hadn't come along. I want to become strong enough to protect Nannaru by myself. I love my baby brother more than anything in this world. But right now, I have no choice but to rely on you. And I… I trust you, Suzaku. I'm glad it was you. You're like a knight, protecting the pathetic princess."

The guilt inside me threatened to crush my very heart. It was difficult to breath. "I'm not like a knight at all," I whispered in reply. "I'm not honorable. And I'm not strong. At least you have a reason to live: you have to be a good big sister and protect Nannaru. But me… I'm not sure I want to be alive anymore."

Lelucia turned over onto her side and embraced me, so that my back was against her chest, and while one of her arms curled around my shoulders and side, the other slipped under my head to pillow it. Neither of us had been particularly touchy-feely so far, but when the world goes to hell so quickly like it did for us, the most reassuring thing is physical touch. Even though I was only a child, I tried to fight hard to be "manly." Despite my best efforts, though, tears welled up in my eyes. It had been so long since I'd had a loving embrace. Mother was almost as cold and distant as my father had been.

"It's ok to cry," said Lelucia, strangely calm. "I swear I'll never tell anyone."

"You said before that you couldn't thank me enough," I answered back, trying to stop my voice from shaking. "But this is plenty. Keep holding me, Lelucia. If you do, I'm sure the nightmares will stop. That's all the repayment I need."

She didn't say a word, but I felt Lelucia nod, and heard her sigh in relief. She held me all night long.

The next day around sunset, we finally reached the citizen evacuation shelter. Some 30,000 people had gathered there. Lelucia and Nannaru were reunited with the Ashfords, and me with my mother. We were told that Japan had officially surrendered, and that Britannians were already starting to take possession of the land. They would claim this as a new Britannian territory, and name it Area Eleven. Even this shelter was now being run by Britannians. For all we knew, they could kill us all on a whim. We found out that, in fact, the people in charge had already killed some of those taking shelter here. They culled about a hundred of the strongest males, "to show who's in charge and discourage any uprisings," in their words.

The sunset turned the skies orange as Lelucia and I sat watching the cruel Britannians burn the dead bodies of the hundred male civilians inside a metal dumpster. The smell made us both sick. At the time, I was far more depressed than I was angry. But when I looked at Lelucia, I was startled to find that she was quivering with rage. The glint in her vivid purple eyes could only be called murderous. And it was then that Lelucia Lamperouge swore,

 _"I will destroy Britannia!"_


	4. Human Demons

**3: Human Demons (Lelucia's Point of View)**

"Lelucia, you slept through class again, didn't you?!"

The accusatory voice belonged to Shane Finette, a boy my age with an attractive and well-toned body practically built for swimming competitions. His hair, which reached nearly to his shoulders, was light reddish-auburn, and his eyes were jade-green. Perhaps the color of his eyes reminded me of Suzaku, and that's why I always felt a little enticed by him. However, at the current point in my life, Shane had been little more than a bother. He and I were members of the student council, and he constantly told me off for not being serious enough. For acting like I didn't care. And Shane was exactly right: I valued my friendships with those on the student council, but I really didn't give a damn about school. I cared even less about council duties or setting a good example for other students.

It had been seven years since I started my life over as Lelucia Lamperouge, living with Nannaru in the Ashford Academy property, with my life essentially paid for by the Ashfords. I couldn't stand being so needy and incapable of caring for myself and Nannaru. Perpetually bored, I could only feel better by taking ridiculous risks. A year ago, I had taken up gambling, often sneaking off campus during school breaks to find rich opponents. I didn't do anything really stupid like play games of pure chance; I played chess and other games that relied on strategy and intellect. Most of the people I played against were entitled Britannian bastards, because, firstly, I loved to see them lose, and secondly, the Japanese (or "Elevens" as they were now called) were not allowed to gamble. With my less than honorable pastime, I made a good deal of money, half of which went to savings and half of which I gave to the Ashfords in order to feel like I was contributing.

It was no wonder Shane fussed at me so often when I took such risks. I might as well have been a delinquent. The other members of the student council didn't let it bother them, though. Milly Ashford, who had become a beautiful young woman with golden hair, was the student council president, and when she wasn't busy running the school, she played pranks and caused mischief. She had little time to spare on me, thank goodness. The petite, dark-and-curly-haired Nina Einstein kept herself occupied with acing every class, competing for top scores, and conducting independent research. She was goal-oriented and determined, though you wouldn't know it at first from talking to her, since she seemed so socially timid. Then there was the student council secretary, Rivalz Cardemonde.

He was a lanky and excitable boy with unruly, spiky hair and honest grey eyes. Laid-back and easy to please, a grin was never far from his features. Rather than lecture me like Shane, Rivalz seemed to admire my exploits, and often came along with me to watch me gamble. He also didn't give a damn about me skipping meetings, being late to lectures, or sleeping through classes. While Shane bemoaned the fact that I never put my high intelligence to good use (competing for grades and such), Rivalz was simply impressed by my obvious brainpower. To be honest, I wasn't the least bit attracted to the boy, and as for his feelings, Rivalz seemed to be drawn to Milly more than anyone else. Our relationship was thus free of any complicated romantic feelings. Having such a friendship felt like relieving breath of fresh air to me. Rivalz treated me like "one of the guys," and sometimes even seemed to forget I was a girl. That's the way I liked it, though. I went so far as to wear the boy's uniform on most school days.

When I started my second year of high school at Ashford Academy, I was struck by how little I had changed, at my core. Looking from the outside, it might not seem that way. I had certainly changed physically in the last seven years. I grew to be fairly tall for a girl (about 5'8"), and developed modest B-cup breasts along with a slight curve to my hips. Still stick-thin as I had been as a child, I only weighed about 120 pounds, and had no strength. My body might have been well-suited for running if I had dedicated time to practicing and building leg muscle—but that sort of thing never interested me. My lifestyle had undergone massive change as well. As a child, I had been a pampered Princess of Britannia, but as a seventeen-year-old, I lived in a foreign country under a fake name; and though Nannaru and I were far more privileged than most Elevens, we could not qualify as aristocrats anymore.

Despite all these vagaries, my core self remained unaltered. I still loved Nannaru more than anything in the world, and spoiled him as much as I could. I still missed Suzaku, my one true friend, who hadn't contacted me in five years. I still grieved to see the Elevens abused and treated like sub-humans by the racist Britannians. And of course, I still hated my native country and my family. I wanted more than anything to destroy the empire and its ruling class. When I thought about how nothing had really changed, I grew depressed and frustrated. Fortunately for me, though, my seventeenth year would be a time of sudden and dramatic transformation. This was the year I would inherit the Power of Kings, the Geass. This year I would found the Black Knights. This year, I would gain the attention of the whole world, and throw Japan into a bloody war once again.

*****Line Break*****

I finally reunited with Kururugi Suzaku in a deserted underground building of metal within the Shinjuku Ghetto. At the time, Knightmares and troops were occupying the whole area and wiping out some three hundred innocent Elevens simply because there were a handful of terrorists hiding among them. I could hear the unmistakable sound of gunfire from automatic weaponry. Even from where I was, away from most of the slaughter, I recognized the scent of death. I stood inside an unmoving truck that had overturned onto its side when the driver activated a bomb in attempt to destroy the whole vehicle and everything in it. However, only the front of the truck had been destroyed in the blast (taking the driver with it). I was safe, as was the mysterious cargo of the truck: some kind of large capsule of reinforced metal, which could be opened by turning a wheel on the side. My first thought was that it was a bomb.

Confused? First, let me tell you in brief how I came to be trapped in a terrorist's truck in an area of bloodshed and slaughter. I owned a motor scooter with a seat fixed to the side for a passenger. I was driving the scooter with Rivalz in the seat beside me, on our way back to school after a successful gambling exploit. We had heard on the news that a group of terrorists (Elevens) had stolen an important weapon and killed eight Britannians. I didn't really care about the eight that perished; they were Britannian curs. By and by, a large truck appeared behind Rivalz and myself. It was going way above the speed limit, and looking out of control. I steered away from the large vehicle, only to look back and see that it had crashed against a wall by veering off the main road too quickly and entering a cul-de-sac with a stone wall at its end.

A small crowd of onlookers gathered around and started gossiping and taking pictures of the scene on their cell phones. Not a single one of them moved to go see if the driver and the passenger in truck were alive. Angrily, I went to go see for myself. Rivalz stayed behind with the scooter. Before checking on the driver and passenger, I wanted to see what they were carrying, already suspecting something was amiss. There was a ladder on the outside of the truck, which by the way had high walls on all sides but no roofing. I climbed the ladder and peeked down to see the cargo. There it was, that capsule that looked like it could be a bomb or some kind of biological weapon. Could this be what the terrorists stole?

Without any warning, the truck started moving again. It backed up, did a three-point turn, and returned to the main highway, flying along at a ridiculous speed. The sudden turning force made me fall down into the truck with the cargo. For a short time, I couldn't see what was going on, but the sounds were enough to let me know. An armed helicopter began pursuing the truck, firing warning shots, and demanding that the terrorists surrender.

Along with the strange capsule, there was also an outdated Knightmare frame in the back of the truck. To my surprise, the person who had been in the passenger's seat came into the cargo hold to pilot the mech. I hid myself instinctively. The "terrorist" I saw before me was a beautiful girl with spiky red hair and fierce blue eyes. She looked like she had some Japanese in her, but obviously wasn't full-blooded. That girl, who I would later come to know as Kallen Stadtfield, took charge of the Knightmare and left the back of the truck, ready to fight the Britannian pursuers.

While she presumably fought off the helicopter and what sounded like an enemy Knightmare, the driver of the truck continued zooming forward at breakneck speed. More enemies must have blocked the road in front, because for some reason, the driver suddenly veered off the road once again. This time we crashed inside a metal building below ground level. I heard the driver shout, "Long live Japan," just before blowing up himself and the front half of the vehicle. The entire back part of the truck turned over onto its side by thanks to the explosion. The large, round, and unrecognizable "weapon" tumbled out of the truck, along with me. Luckily, I wasn't injured. I knew the explosion would alert the Britannians to this location, and I planned to appeal to them to move me to safety. Would they listen, or would they kill me for just being at the wrong place at the wrong time? I waited anxiously to find out.

Soon, a soldier appeared at the entryway of the garage-like metal enclosure. Dressed in gray and black armor, with a helmet covering his whole head, he approached silently. I noted the assault rifle he was carrying and swallowed hard. At once, I began stammering that I was only a Britannian student and I had nothing to do with any of this, but the soldier leaped at me and performed a powerful mid-air kick that knocked me down on my ass. Then he was on top of me, one hand at my throat.

"Terrorist," the soldier addressed me severely, "stop killing people! And to think you would use poison gas, no less! Don't you know you're going to involve innocent people in—"

"Suzaku!" I interrupted with some effort—it was difficult to breathe, let alone shout. But all my fear had vanished. I knew that spinning kick move. I had seen Suzaku perform it beautifully so many times, when we went to General Tohdoh's Dojo that summer seven years ago. "Suzaku!" I called to him. "It's me!"

"Lelucia?" The soldier released me and removed his helmet. That short brown hair, that slender yet toned build, those sparkling forest-green eyes: it was indeed Suzaku. "It really is you, Lelucia!" he exclaimed. And he smiled: such a sincere and expressive smile, conveying the raw happiness he felt at seeing me again, and the hope that we could once again grow close to one another. He looked so handsome. If I had been more feminine and less likely to hide my feelings, I would have blushed.

"So you joined up with the army," I noted, as Suzaku stood up and obligingly pulled me to my feet. I couldn't help thinking that him being a soldier was extremely odd. By joining the army, an Eleven could become accepted as an Honorary Britannian and enjoy something closer to civil liberty and fair treatment. However, the Suzaku I knew had never been interested in sucking up to the Britannians. He didn't have the personality that would just shut up and follow orders, either. I had feared for years that Suzaku would die by picking a fight with a Britannian aristocrat over some insult to his people or to his pride. I often worried that he was dead already as a result of his stubbornness. Yet here he was, a private in the Britannian military. Despite myself, I grew angry.

"You said this was poison gas," I snapped at him, showing my true feelings more than I was used to. "The terrorists may have stolen it, but it was Britannia that made this weapon. And you said 'stop killing'?! The empire is the one killing innocents. If you want that to stop, fight to destroy Britannia!"

"Wait," said Suzaku, as if putting two and two together. "Don't tell me you're really a terrorist after all?"

"What are you saying?!" I exclaimed, exasperated. "Of course I'm not a—"

Suddenly and unaccountably, the round, metallic weapon beside us began to open. At first it did look like gas was spewing out of it. Faster than I could think, Suzaku knocked me over and shielded me with his body in case of an explosion. At the same time, he covered my mouth with his gloved hand, trying to keep me from breathing in the supposedly poisonous gas. However, after the initial blast of steam, no visible gas could be seen, and I couldn't smell anything either. A strange golden light streamed up from the open capsule, and with it came a strange girl.

Even if she hadn't been dressed in something that looked like a white body bag, secured in places with metal restraints, the girl still would have looked unnatural. With her long, silky, mint-green hair, the red tattoo on her forehead, and the way she seemed to glow, she looked inhuman. At the same time, she was unarguably gorgeous. Ever since I started high school, I noticed that I can be as physically attracted to other girls as much as I am to men. To be honest, I thought this green-haired girl was the most femininely beautiful person I had ever seen. While Suzaku and I stared at her, she rose up slowly from inside the capsule, lost her balance, and tumbled onto the ground. She could barely move, what with most of her body covered in the zippered white cloth, and metal rings around her ankles and wrists to boot. The girl's eyes were closed, and she didn't seem to be moving. It was as if she were sleeping.

Suzaku at once started to remove the metal restraints. At the same time he muttered something about how he was sure the commander told him there would be poison gas, and this made no sense. He started unzipping the white body bag around the girl. Underneath the tough cloth, she was in her underwear, so Suzaku didn't dare remove the whole thing. He did just enough so that she could move freely. I wondered to myself if he felt at all tempted in regards to the girl, and that thought made me realize something quite suddenly. Suzaku and I were both at an age where sexual tension and desire runs high; he was a male and I was a female, and it was possible the two of us could…

"You little ape!" The harsh voice shattered my teenage contemplation and startled Suzaku as well. We both looked at the owner of the voice: it was a Britannian man of high-ranking, probably a General, with about nine armed soldiers behind him. He had been addressing Suzaku when he said, "You little ape." With a sour look on his face, the bearded general continued, "So you're setting that girl free. I don't recall giving that much authority to a mere 'Honorary' Britannian."

I had already gathered that this strange girl must be someone of great importance to the empire, but Suzaku wasn't as quick to catch on; he hurried over to the general a few yards away, saluted, and started saying all the wrong things. "I'm sorry, General, but I heard that there was poison gas. There must have been some misinformation. When I saw the girl, I had to do something. Who is she? Do you know what's really—"

"You don't have the right to argue!" the General interrupted. He quickly glanced at me and the as-yet unconscious green-haired girl before speaking again. "However, Private Kururugi, you managed to capture one of the terrorists, and you located the girl before she could wake up and escape. In light of your accomplishments, I'll give you a chance to prove your loyalty to me." He gave Suzaku a hefty, blockish-looking hand-gun. "Here. Use this to kill the terrorist."

Then Suzaku finally caught on to the fact that _my_ life was in grave danger. "You're mistaken about her, General!" he exclaimed. "Lelucia is just a civilian who accidentally got caught up in this."

"Bastard," the General insulted him. "I gave you an order! Didn't you pledge allegiance to Britannia?!"

There was no sign of inner conflict on his face or in his voice: no indication that Suzaku even considered shooting me. Right away, he said, "I'm sorry, sir. I can't do it. I won't do it. Not a civilian like her." As he ended his sentence, Suzaku turned his head to look back at me. Again, he showed me his honest smile. Two seconds later, Suzaku was on the ground, unmoving. The General had shot him. At such close range, I couldn't imagine the shot wouldn't be fatal.

I screamed. Head in my hands, I released all my shock, disbelief, sorrow, and rage into an anguished shriek. It couldn't be true. Suzaku couldn't be dead. I became frozen in shock. Until then, I didn't realize how important he was to me. My childhood friend. The savior of my life and Nannaru's. The strongest man I had ever known, with a heart of gold. For a few minutes, I dissociated from reality and had only a vague idea of what was happening around me. The General was making up some excuse or lie that would justify killing a young Britannian student. I heard him fire his gun, but I wasn't hit. The mysterious green-haired girl had woken up and jumped in the way. I didn't see exactly where or how she was shot, but I assumed she was dead as her body crumpled to the ground in front of me. Blearily, I saw that Britannian General reloading his gun in preparation to kill me. This time, no one was left to protect me.

My mind drifted back to reality, and I found myself faced with certain, imminent death. Was this the end? Would I die without ever accomplishing anything? Would Nannaru survive without me? As I closed my eyes and braced myself, the last thing I thought of was Suzaku. In my mind's eye, I saw him smiling at me as he had only moments before. I never even got to tell him how much I cared about him, how grateful to him I felt…the thought was unbearable.

"Suzaku," I whispered his name.

"It looks like you have a reason to live," said a voice inside my head.

Somehow, I knew it was the voice of the green-haired girl, whose hand I was holding, as blood leaked out of the bullet hole in her forehead. She should be dead. How was she talking to me? Half a dozen images rushed before my eyes out of nowhere. I stood in an open space of pure white, naked, and across from me, also unclothed, the green-haired girl stood extending a hand to me. I saw the networks of my brain cells and synapses in blue and white, intricate designs I could not begin to comprehend. Among the crisscrossing lines I fell, tangled in the complexity. Then I saw two planets drawing close to one another, until a curtain of white feathers, spiraling in the wind, obscured the view of space. Last, I saw hundreds of young men and women, kneeling as if in prayer. They all bore the same red tattoo on their foreheads, which resembled the silhouette of a bird in flight. Could they be part of an unknown culture?

While all these things flashed before my eyes, the girl's voice spoke to me. "If you have Power, you may be able to live. This is a contract. I'll grant you a certain Power, but in return, you must grant one of my wishes. If you agree to the contract, you will live as a human, yet differ from other humans. A different destiny, a different time, a different life. The Power of Kings will isolate you. If you are prepared for that, then…"

I was falling listlessly through what looked like neural networks, changing from blue to green to gold and finally to red. Then, for a second, I thought I saw an image of my father, standing before a great archway leading into another world. Was this Power the girl spoke of something that my father also possessed? If he could handle it, so could I.

"Fine then," I said in my head to the girl. I had never felt more certain of anything in my life. "I'll bind that contract!"

All of that felt like it had taken a lifetime, but only seconds had passed in reality. The General was still standing a few feet from me, preparing his gun. The mysterious and beautiful green-haired girl lay in a pool of her own blood. I was on my knees beside her. Suzaku's unmoving body lay at the General's feet, but I couldn't bring myself to look at it. Suddenly, I found myself brimming with confidence in my new power, driven by hatred for Britannia and love for Suzaku. I stood up and faced the soldiers with a half-smile on my pale face.

"Tell me," I began. "How should a Britannian who hates Britannia live his life?"

"Are you some kind of idealist?" the General grunted, pointing his pistol at me. He didn't shoot right away though. He looked a little puzzled, a little uneasy, as if he sensed something by looking at me.

"What's wrong?" I asked in a patronizing voice. "Why don't you shoot? Your opponent is only a helpless student, and a girl at that. Or perhaps you've realized it. That the only ones allowed to kill should be those who are prepared to die." Until then, I had been covering my left eye with my hand; I felt sheer power burning there. Now, I removed my hand, and looked straight at the enemy. The vision in my left eye went red for a moment and I saw the same shape as the tattoo that looked like a bird in flight.

"What—what is that?" the General demanded, suddenly trembling. To him I must have looked like some demon, tall and elegant, pale as death, one eye glazed with red.

"Lelucia vi Britannia commands you bastards," I announced. "Die."

The General gave a laugh and moved his gun so it was pointed at his own head. I could see a ring of red around his irises. The other soldiers also pointed their guns at themselves. In unison, they said, "Yes, Your Highness," and summarily committed suicide. They blew their own heads apart, spattering blood and brains everywhere. Even from where I stood a few feet away, a little splash of hot blood stained my cheek. It was astounding how colorful fresh human brains were. It was amazing how a skull could fall apart once blasted through by a high millimeter bullet. I struggled with a feeling of sickness for a moment, fully aware that I had just killed ten men: humans. But I wasn't sorry for it. The sickness passed quickly without me needing to vomit. After all, these sons of bitches had killed Suzaku. They deserved to die. If anything, I had killed them too mercifully.

Now, there was still much to be done. The day was young, and a demon had been born inside me.


	5. Knight of Sin

**4: Knight of Sin**

 _My vision is blurry and the lighting seems dim. My chest throbs painfully. I don't know where I am, and I can't remember exactly what happened, but I'm sure I've been shot. In my half-conscious state, I feel someone pull me up into a sitting position. I smell the scent of someone familiar. A beautiful and slender young woman with black hair has her arms around me. She is holding me and weeping softly. In a weak, cracked voice, I tell her not to cry. She gasps at the sound of my voice. Perhaps she thought I was dead. The young woman kisses my forehead, and then each of my cheeks, and finally my mouth. I'm vaguely aware that it's my first kiss. It feels soft and heavenly, and I like the taste of this woman. I am too tired and in too much pain, or else I would have held her tightly and kissed her back: a longer, deeper kiss._

 _The woman looks right at me, but the only part of her face I can make out clearly is her left eye, which is encompassed in red. Deep within her pupil is a symbol that resembles the silhouette of a flying bird. I hear the following words from a strong and commanding, yet somehow feminine voice:_

 _"Kururugi Suzaku, you shall always live. You will forget that I saved you here today."_

 _Moments before, I had been wishing for my death, disappointed to find myself with nothing worse than a sore chest. Now, however, I feel a powerful will to live surge up inside me. It's the first time I've wanted to live in a long time. Did the words of the mysterious young woman affect me so intensely? She speaks to me again in that beautiful voice, but this time it's a question and not a command._

 _"Who was it that ordered the occupation of Shinjuku Ghetto? Who ordered the army to destroy the whole area and kill so many civilians, just so they could find the terrorists?"_

 _I want to tell her that she's mistaken, and the army isn't killing anyone unnecessarily, but I only have the energy to answer her question in two words. "Viceroy Clovis," I whisper._

 _Hearing that, the young woman leaves my side, and I vaguely see her talking to another woman. This one is a tall, robust Britannian Knight with a Sutherland parked behind her. The shorter, thinner, black-haired woman tells the female Knight to forget all about her Knightmare, drop the key, and "take Private Kururugi to a medic." After a pause, I see the older woman nodding and dropping the key to her mech. Then she approaches me and prepares to take me away. Behind her, the mysterious girl who had kissed me picks up the key and takes control of the Sutherland Knightmare. I have a vague sensation she's out for blood. Then the pain in my chest returns, and I pass out._

*****Line Break*****

As far as what happened after I was shot by the General, I thought it was a dream, or else I didn't remember it at all. However, much later, I would find out it happened in reality. The woman who kissed me, and then cursed me with the will to live, was Lelucia vi Britannia. With her Geass, she would soon take on the role of the revolution leader and the enemy of the Holy Britannian Empire, Zero.

I woke up on a makeshift bed in a trailer set up by the medics just outside the Shinjuku Ghetto. I was shirtless and someone had bandaged my chest. Judging by the feel of it, I hadn't actually been pierced by a bullet. My skin was broken just a little and I could feel the deep bruising all around it. Something had stopped the bullet itself, but just barely, leaving the left side of my chest swollen and sore. When I saw my metal-coated pocket watch lying on a table next to me, cracked and broken, I understood. That watch the last belonging of my father that I owned. I had always kept it in the pocket closest to my heart on the left side of my chest. Like a charm, that watch had saved me from sustaining what might have otherwise been a fatal injury. A strange thought crossed my mind, though: it was a feeling of certainty that I would have lived even if I had been shot in the heart.

My thoughts were interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Lloyd Asplundh and Cecile Croomy. The former was a genius private contractor who researched and developed Knightmare technology for the Britannian military; he looked about thirty, had blue-gray eyes and silvery hair, and wore a white lab-coat and large wire-framed glasses. The latter, Miss Cecile, served as Lloyd's assistant and helped develop new Knightmares. Her dark hair almost looks like it has blue highlights in the right light, and her eyes are beautiful shade of deep sapphire. Just a few years younger than her spectacled supervisor, she was always poignantly kind-hearted. That was why she took a liking to me as soon as I started participating in the tests of new Knightmares that she and Lloyd frequently conducted. As an Eleven, I was forced to take part in various tests and experiments, and Cecile must have taken pity on me.

(Not that I ever acted like I wanted pity: I was actually glad to be of use, and thanks to all the tests, I found out I have a high Knightmare performance percentage (94%). Furthermore, I am compatible with many frames, including the newest one Lloyd had been working on, a white 7th generation prototype. Since Elevens could not become Knights, they would never be allowed to own their own Knightmare or pilot one in battle. So I was pleased just for the opportunity to do some test-runs and simulations.)

"Too bad, Suzaku-kun," Lloyd said in his characteristically light, zany voice. "You missed your chance to get into heaven." He grinned at me and then let Cecile explain how the watch saved my life and how Lady Villetta Nu had brought me back to the medic's trailers.

"What about Lelucia?" I interrupted them. Then, realizing how bizarre that sounded, I rephrased my question. "What's the current situation?"

"Poison gas was spread all around Shinjuku," replied Lloyd, repeating the story that he had been fed by the higher-ups. "There's been a great number of casualties among the elevens in the area. It seems the culprit hasn't been caught yet."

"I see." The loss of life truly saddened me, but something else was on my mind. In all the chaos, had Lelucia been killed, too? Surely someone would have reported it if they saw a young female student of Britannia. More than anything, I wanted to find her, and make sure she was alive. "Lloyd-san," I said, standing up, "will I be allowed to rejoin the other ground troops and continue searching the area?"

"It's funny you should ask." Lloyd was holding what looked like a Knightmare key and spinning it around on his fingers. "There's just no rest for the wicked, Suzaku-kun. Would you like to put your piloting skills to use in the field of battle? Come. The only Knightmare of its kind in the world awaits you."

He was referring to the white-and-gold, 7th generation prototype I had taken for a test run last week. But why would he make such a ludicrous offer? Elevens weren't allowed to pilot Knightmares. I didn't understand until I heard more about the battle situation currently underway. Terrorists calling themselves "The Resistance" had appeared and started fighting back. Two Britannian Knightmares had been destroyed by bazooka blasts from the suspected leader of the operation, and three others were wounded in a gunfight in which they shot and killed five armed and dangerous Elevens. Furthermore, one terrorist had control of an old red Glasgow; whoever it was, her piloting was top-notch, and she brought down at least one Britannian Knightmare even after one of her mech's arms was torn off.

Conditions worsened when a second terrorist appeared piloting a purple Sutherland. He worked with the red Glasgow take out two more Britannian Knightmares. Then, together, they stopped a train on the east end of Shinjuku, having somehow discovered that the locomotive was full of brand-new blue-and-gray Sutherlands. Those machines were supposed to be used by the Viceroy's new personal guard squad, which hadn't officially been formed yet. The terrorists quickly took control of the fresh mechs, meaning the Britannians were now up against about a dozen enemy pilots.

Whoever was in the purple Sutherland was a genius. He did an excellent job uniting the terrorists and ordering them to proceed according to his schemes. Viceroy Clovis la Britannia had sent in reinforcements, so compared to the resistance, Britannia had about three times as many Knightmares. However, they were being swiftly out-maneuvered by the enemy's strategies and tactics.

"So you want me to go into the field with new prototype and stop the terrorists," I realized. For a moment I thought that Lloyd was eager to help Britannia and stop the destructive terrorists, but it didn't take long for me to recognize that he was actually just eager to test out his "toys." To him, I was like a key part in a machine: I was necessary, and valuable, but I was still a thing to be used.

Acting far too cheerful, Lloyd Asplundh opened audio and video communications with Clovis' command center to the northwest. After some argument and convincing, he persuaded the higher-ups to give his plan the go-ahead. I would be sent out into the battlefield piloting the best mech Lloyd and Cecile had worked together to create: the Lancelot. Assuming I was able to pilot it well, this Knightmare was said to be worlds better than the mass-produced Sutherlands. It was faster, stronger, and had numerous weapons, along with a shield powerful enough to deflect heavy fire from other mechs.

The lovely Miss Cecile expressed concern about me piloting when I had an injury, but I had to go regardless. A third of Britannia's Knightmares had already been taken out when the ground gave out under them and they crashed down into the tunnels below, where the terrorists were waiting to shoot them. I had to prove my loyalty by saving the remaining twenty-five Knightmares from defeat. This would also prove that Elevens could be valiant and skilled Knights. Those were the reasons for which I "should" pilot the Lancelot. But in reality, the reason I "wanted" to pilot it was to look for Lelucia. She took priority in my mind. I simply had to find her. It was too sad to think that I had seen her after so many years, only to have her die for getting caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Once I got out into the thick of things, though, I realized this was truly a life-or-death situation. I had orders to take out the terrorists. If I didn't kill them, or force them to eject from their machines, they wouldn't hesitate to kill me. I had my hands full with fighting, so there was no time to look for Lelucia. At one point, I saw a woman falling from a half-destroyed building, and caught her in midair, hoping she was Lelucia. When I looked closely, however, it was a woman in her thirties with a baby at her breasts. Well, I thought, at least I had saved two innocent lives. I let her run away. Then it was back to the battle.

I won't lie and say I didn't feel empowered and thrilled in this kind of situation: outdoing the other pilots, fighting for glory and honor, risking my life in reckless moves, and playing the role of a white knight. I felt like I was born for piloting the Lancelot. For so many years, I had been forced to suck up to the Britannians, to follow orders unquestionably, and to swallow all the insults and discrimination that came my way. But now, here I was in a real Knightmare, fighting with my own skill and power. I destroyed the ten main Sutherlands operated by the terrorists, though I only killed two. The other eight—nine counting the woman piloting the red Glasgow—ejected from their machines and escaped. I fought against the ringleader in the purplish Sutherland, but in the end he managed to evade me as well.

After defeating the resistance, there was a period of about thirty minutes where the Britannian pilots and I received no orders from the command station. They spent this time wreaking further havoc on the Shinjuku Ghetto. About two hundred of my own people were killed.

I was about to snap. I couldn't take this cruel world anymore. I already knew the casualties from before were not really from poison gas. The Britannians were simply culling the Japanese; some did it for fun, and others, out of the heartless rationale that displays like this were needed to prevent the natives from starting rebellions. Just when I was about to start killing the Knights in my vicinity, an announcement from Viceroy Clovis was aired all over Shinjuku.

"This is an order from Clovis la Britannia, Third Prince of the Holy Britannian Empire, and Viceroy of Area Eleven. Cease fire! All units, Knights, and soldiers are to cease fire. You are to cease all other destructive activities in Shinjuku as well. Search for survivors, and help the wounded, whether they are Britannians or Elevens! This is an absolute order from your Prince and Viceroy Clovis la Britannia!"

Nobody could claim to have not heard this widespread broadcast. The twenty-some Britannian Knights had no choice but to follow orders. Of course, Clovis only made this announcement because Lelucia was at that point holding him at gun-point, but I had no way of knowing that. I've never been anywhere near as clever as Lelucia. To me, the Clovis' declaration was exactly what I needed in order to forgive the Britannians and once again cooperate with their corrupt systems. I vowed once more to change the system from the inside, and to never use dishonorable methods to achieve results. Good would eventually prevail. Elevens would win civil rights one day. I stubbornly hammered that into my head.

Thanks to Clovis' broadcast, six hundred wounded people were saved, and twice that many that lived in the Ghetto had their lives spared after being told earlier that they were going to be culled for conspiring with terrorists. I later found out that about five hundred residents of Shinjuku had been killed during the operation before the ceasefire announcement, but at the time, I was happy enough just to find and help survivors. Plus, while I searched for and helped the wounded, I also investigated every nook and cranny for signs of Lelucia and that the green-haired girl. My search was fruitless, though.

*****Line Break*****

Finally, my energy filler ran out, and I took the Lancelot back to Lloyd and Cecile. They had nothing but bad news for me. I was immediately seized, handcuffed, and dragged away by Britannian officers. When I asked why, they said it was because Clovis la Britannia had been murdered, and I was going to be the one to take the blame. They didn't care in the least if I was actually the one who killed the Viceroy.

I was interrogated by Sir Jeremiah Gottwald, and he allowed the guards to give me a few good kicks and punches. I had been through much worse, so I put up with it. The bullying was supposed to make admit to the crime, but it didn't work. I rightfully claimed innocence. After another beating, I was sent to wait in a jail cell while the brass decided what to do with me. They would probably hold a trial, but it would be a mock-trial; they had already decided that I was the scapegoat. I was sentenced to be executed by the court martial in three days. They were going to make a big show of it, parading me through the city before killing me, and airing it on live television.

Most people would be outraged and terrified if this happened to them. But I didn't particularly care. This whole policy of being righteous and humble, accepting foreign invasion, and trying to changing corrupt systems from within was only something I tried to practice while waiting for death. I wanted to die. I believed I deserved to die. That was why it was always so easy to risk my life without thinking. It's also the real reason I joined the military. And the reason why I now cared so little when I heard about my death sentence. Death, to me, was like a Goddess that I strove to reach. One day, she would come and take me away, wrap me in her black wings, and bring me peace. Every single day, I thought about killing myself. But suicide has always seemed cowardly to me. I would much rather wait and die in battle, or perhaps be murdered or executed by some racist Britannian bastard.

Why did I feel this way, you wonder? For starters, I had murdered my father. Killing one's own blood-related parent warrants death for punishment. Some would say I wasn't culpable because it happened when I was only ten. Others would say punishment was not needed because the end justified the means; my father's death led to Japan's surrender and thus saved thousands of lives that he would have sacrificed by continuing the war. Those valid arguments sound like excuses to me, however, and do not alleviate my guilt in the slightest.

Even if I hadn't committed that irredeemable sin seven years ago, I still tended to think of death as an escape from the dark world of reality. After all, I had already seen a multitude of horrors, a single one of which can destroy a person's sanity. War and destruction. Cruel acts of racism. Civilian slaughter. Corrupt judicial systems. Selfishness, hate, bigotry, deception, and every other dark aspect of humanity's true nature. I was sick and tired of a world filled to the brim with such things.

I could only think of one thing that would keep me interested in living in this world: having someone close to me who understands exactly how I feel, and knows my sins, and loves me anyway. A strange thought had crossed my mind earlier that day when I saw Lelucia in Shinjuku Ghetto. What if she were to become my special someone? If she knew of my sins, would she still like me? If she did, would that motivate me to live?

It didn't matter though; I was certain that Lelucia was dead. That goddamn General must have killed her after shooting me down. If Lelucia was dead, that was the last straw. Just to be sure, I asked Lloyd to look at the list of casualties that had been compiled by the day after the Shinjuku disaster. I gave him detailed descriptions of Lelucia and the green-haired girl, and of course I gave him the name Lelucia Lamperouge. When he came to visit me my second night in jail, I expected Lloyd to confirm the deaths.

"Omedetou!" cried the genius inventor of the Lancelot. The exclamation meant, "Congratulations!" Lloyd explained, "Neither of the people you asked about were on the confirmed casualty list. Without the one girl's name, I have no way to confirm if she's alive, but the other girl you mentioned is a different story. The student, Lelucia Lamperouge. I called Ashford Academy and they confirmed that Lelucia attended school today."

I thought that all the hope in my heart had died, disappearing like the flame of a candle when a cold wind blows by. I was wrong. My hope was still alive. It started as a spark, but then quickly leapt into burning, colorful fire once again. Lelucia was alive. I still had a reason to live.


	6. The Value of a Promise

**5: The Value of a Promise**

After confirming that Suzaku was alive, I used my Geass to order the guards of Clovis' miniature mobile fortress to let me in. I also had one of the men give me a hand-gun and a soldier's helmet and gear. I used Geass on Clovis, too, to see if he had any clues as to who killed my mother. He informed me that Cornelia, another half-sister, might know the answers. At gunpoint, I made my half-brother order a ceasefire in Shinjuku. Clovis recognized me once I removed the soldier's helmet. He begged for his life.

In order to destroy the corruption of Britannia, however, it was necessary to kill cruel, racist cowards like Clovis. Besides, I couldn't forgive him for ordering the slaughter that took so many lives, and for creating the situation that almost got Suzaku killed. So I shot my half-brother in the head, and he died at once. Because he was my kin, or perhaps because I had never killed anyone before by pulling the trigger myself, I got sick and threw up. Even twenty-four hours later, thinking about Clovis' dead body and exploded head made me run to the bathroom to vomit. I was still soft-hearted. I had a long way to go.

In a dream that night, I relived a memory from seven years ago.

 _The Britannian invasion of Japan started two days ago, but Suzaku and I try not to think about. We play out in the woods, and when I run out of breath, we go to sit in my favorite glen full of sunflowers. He keeps calling me "Princess." I get playfully angry and try to knock him down using a move I learned from Tohdoh's Dojo. It doesn't work on Suzaku, who has much more experience. He ends up knocking me over on my back, and then loses his balance and falls on top of me. We both laugh. For a few minutes, the boy stays on top of me, as we both enjoy the feeling, being just old enough to want to experiment with our bodies. Suzaku picks a sunflower and tucks it behind my ear._

 _"You look pretty," he says, too caught up in the moment, and too young, to feel embarrassed over it._

 _"I don't want to be pretty," I confess, with other matters weighing on my mind. "I want to be strong like you so I can protect my little brother." I reach into my pocket and pull out a half-crushed origami crane. "Yesterday, Nannaru I read about paper folding, and I made some of these for Nannaru."_

 _"It's not bad," Suzaku appraises my work. "You're good with your hands. There's an old Japanese legend, you know. It says that if you fold a thousand paper cranes, you can make a wish come true."_

 _"I didn't know that. Hmm." I think about what I might wish for. I wanted my mother to come back. I wanted my father to love Nannaru and me. I wanted the invasion of Japan to stop. I wanted Britannia to quit being such a domineering, unfair, and corrupt country. I wanted to be Empress so that I could change the country myself. I wanted to make Nannaru happy for the rest of his life. And I wanted to be able to be with Suzaku, my one and only friend, forever._

 _"I don't think I could pick just one wish," I tell him, liking the feeling of his body on mine, with our faces so close together I can feel his breath on my skin. "Maybe I'd wish to be the Empress. What about you? What would you wish for if you could have any one wish granted?"_

 _Suzaku often spoke before thinking, blurting out the first thing on his mind. "I think I would wish for a kinder, gentler world," he stated. "One where there's not so much war and killing and hate. Hmm. On the other hand." Now he regretted picking his wish so quickly. "If you're going to wish to be the Empress… then I'd like to wish to be your Knight, for forever."_

 _"That's stupid," I grumble, because I'm actually flattered, and embarrassed. I shake it off quickly though, and say, "Ok then, Suzaku. I'm going to try to make your wish come true. I bet I can change the whole world in only ten years. By the time I'm Empress and you're my Knight, the world will be a gentle place without wars. I swear it." It was a ridiculous thing to promise, of course, but I truly meant it._

 _"Pinky-swear," says Suzaku, and we interlock our fingers and shake them. "Now if you break your promise, according to the Japanese rhyme, you have to swallow a thousand needles." He giggled. "You'd better get folding those paper cranes pretty fast. Otherwise you can't grant my wish for me. I'll personally make sure you swallow a bunch of needles, haha!"_

 _"That's mean." I sit up and push him off me. "Just you wait, Suzaku. I really will change the world."_

*****Line Break*****

The next two days felt like eternities. So much happened. In brief, I'll explain. At school, I met Kallen, a girl who had been absent since the beginning of the year. She had red hair and blue eyes, a tall and attractive body, and looked partly Japanese. I realized at once that she was the terrorist girl who had piloted the red Glasgow during the battle at Shinjuku the previous day.

I heard from Rivalz that she was rich because she was the daughter of the late Earl Stadtfield, a Britannian aristocrat with an impressive fortune. She acted reserved and polite when talking to classmates, and she had most of the school believing she had a weak and sickly constitution, leading to frequent hospitalizations and thus absences from school. Of course, I didn't buy any of that. I knew she was really a passionate, outspoken, and courageous fighter in the resistance force. Maybe she did have a weak body, but it was highly compatible with Knightmare frames; she must have had a pilot performance percentage in the 90s.

If I hadn't said anything, maybe Kallen wouldn't have started to suspect me. However, I confronted her in the courtyard of Ashford Academy and ordered her, "Answer a few of my questions." Kallen's body relaxed, and it seemed to me I could see a ring of red around the irises of her eyes: the sign she was under my control. "Why did you pilot that Knightmare in Shinjuku?" I asked.

"Because I am Japanese," she replied at once, in a flat voice. "Even though half my blood is Britannian."

"So your mother is Japanese, then." Next I asked, "Is it the desire for vengeance that drives you?"

"No. I hate Britannia, but what drives me most is the desire for liberty for the Elevens who still live."

"Has Britannia taken something precious from you, besides subjugating your people? I mean, have they done something that hurt you deeply and personally?" I was asking these questions because in my mind, I already wanted Kallen to be a fighter pilot for me and my war against Britannia. But I had to make sure she was fighting for the right reasons, and that she had a good reason to keep fighting no matter what.

"Yes," Kallen answered, still in a dull, even tone. "Yesterday, my brother Naoto was killed in Shinjuku. He was the driver of the truck carrying the poison gas. He was our leader until yesterday."

"Who is the leader now?" I questioned.

"Kaname Ohgi. He's more cautious than Naoto was, but he's equally determined and brave."

"I see." That was all the information I needed at the moment. This was before I knew I only had one shot with the Geass on each person. "Don't speak to anyone about Shinjuku," I tried to command her.

To my surprise, the Geass wore off, Kallen's body stiffened, and that singularly vicious look of hers returned to her eyes. "Shinjuku?" she demanded, voice full of suspicion and aggression. "What do you mean? What am I doing here? And what were we just talking about?"

I managed to dodge the questions and get away, saying I had student council duties to attend to. As the school day went on, though, it became clear that Kallen suspected my identity as the person who united the terrorists yesterday. I had led them to defeat some twelve Britannian Knights with my clever battle strategies. On the other hand, I had abandoned them high and dry once the Lancelot showed up. That didn't bode well for my reputation at all. I wanted the terrorists on my side, but hiding my identity from them would be necessary. They wouldn't follow me if they knew I was a Britannian Princess, or if they thought I was just a no-name Britannian high school student.

Kallen was about my height, which made her a bit tall for a girl. In addition to having more feminine curves and a more ample chest than me, she also had more arm muscle, making her the stronger and heavier one compared to me. Because of that, and because of the savage look that sometimes appeared in her blue eyes, I found myself frightened by Kallen. It took quite a bit of scheming to convince her I wasn't the person who guided the terrorists yesterday. I went home and made a recording of my "terrorist leader" voice, telling Kallen to wait for instructions regarding us meeting. The next day, I had our maid, Sayoko, call the school and play the recording for Kallen to hear. I acted like I had no idea what the phone call was about, and the redheaded girl fell for the act.

(It was a good thing she did, too. Otherwise, I don't know what she would have done to me. I found out she had a knife, hidden in a girly-looking pouch/wallet. Before the phone call assured her I was innocent, she had been holding the knife threateningly against my wrist. I suppose she had reason to act hostile. Even if she hadn't been suspicious about my identity, she was angry because, when I brought her the phone, she was naked in the girl's shower room. Gym class had just ended. Annoyingly, something in my expression always gave away the fact that I'm equally attracted to females as to males. If girls saw me admiring their bodies, they started treating me like a man or, worse, like a sexual predator.)

I was able to relax a little once I was sure Kallen's qualms were alleviated. Over the course of the school day, I ran several tests to better understand my Geass. It didn't take me long to discover that I could only use it on each person once, that it required eye contact, and that it was possible to give complex orders of a continuous nature. After classes, Kallen and I walked to the brick building just to the east of the main Academy campus. Nannaru and I lived in this building with our maid, Miss Sayoko Shinozaki. Our living arrangement was thanks to the continued favor of the Ashfords, which had become a prominent aristocratic family after the war, when they got into the Sakuradite business.

The reason Kallen and I went to my residence was so we could meet up with Nannaru and all the members of the student council. Between the seven of us, we had a fine party celebrating Kallen's induction into the club. All the arrangements were made by the capable and fun-loving Milly Ashford. She cooked Japanese-style curry and Italian-style caprese for us, ordered a pizza, and brought organic fruit juice, along with two bottles of carbonated grape cider.

Rivalz was extremely disappointed to find out that the fizzy cider had no alcohol content whatsoever. Nevertheless, he was in good enough spirits to flirt with Milly. Shane talked to Nina in a futile attempt to understand the physics research the young girl genius was conducting. When that got old, Shane lectured me endlessly about how I should be a better student, and plagued me with questions about where I had been all day during the Shinjuku incident. Nannaru was delighted to meet Kallen and spent most of the time talking to her. I chatted a bit here and there with everyone, with a false demeanor of cheerfulness. My mind wandered elsewhere.

I remembered my promise to Suzaku so many years ago, and his wish for a gentler world. I was sure that Nannaru wanted the same thing. I grew up telling myself I was going to destroy Britannia someday, and at last, the opportunity had been given to me. With my sharp mind and the power of Geass, perhaps my ambitions could be realized. I would need help, though. It was critically important to arrange a meeting with Kallen, the other members of the resistance, and their apparent leader, Kaname Ohgi. I had to make them work with me while keeping my true identity secret. I'd need a mask, and I don't just mean presenting a persona of a powerful, bold, and confident leader; I would also need a real mask to hide the face of Lelucia vi Britannia. So, that afternoon and evening, I worked hard gathering the right materials, making the right adjustments, and putting them all together to make a heroic costume.

It was past Nannaru's bedtime, but that night he stayed up later than usual, listening to the news reports on the television. Just as I was finishing my Zero costume, my little brother called to me an urgent voice. I came running to see what was wrong, but Nannaru just pointed in the direction of the TV. Then I saw it: the news headline that read, "Kururugi Suzaku arrested for the murder of Prince Clovis." There was footage of him walking with his hands tied behind his back, escorted by two bulky Britannian guards. One of them hit Suzaku in the face. I was grateful Nannaru couldn't see that. But he had clearly heard the announcer say Suzaku's name, as well as the fact that he had been arrested for murder. To make things worse, the newscaster ended the report by saying, "The evil Eleven who killed our beloved Viceroy is sentenced to be publicly executed tomorrow night."

If Nannaru hadn't been there, upset and panicking, I doubt I would have held myself together very well. The guilt and fear were enough to crush anyone; Suzaku was being blamed for a crime I committed. Even with the Geass I cast on him ordering him to live, he wouldn't be able to help it if people more powerful than him subdued and executed him. Since he was a member of the military, Suzaku would be shot to death by a firing squad. But because Nannaru was there, I was able to mask my distress.

I placed my hands on my little brother's shoulders comfortingly and told him that of course the news wasn't true; Suzaku would never do something like this. There had to be some mistake. Nannaru asked if there was anything we could do to help our old friend, and I had to tell him we were powerless. In my head, however, I was already thinking of a plan to save Suzaku. There would be no point in remaking the world if he were no longer part of it. Maybe it's strange that I treasured Suzaku so much and held him so dear in my heart, given that we had been apart for so many years. But I couldn't help how I felt. Suzaku had been my one true friend after my banishment. He saved me during the invasion of Japan. Even though he had joined the army, he disobeyed orders and got himself shot because of refusing to kill me. Because of who he was and all he had done, Suzaku was probably the person I cared most about in the world, next to Nannaru, of course.

*****Line Break****

I left the house before sunrise the next day to make all the necessary preparations for my meeting with the terrorists. I called Kallen from an untraceable phone and told her to bring Ohgi and any other resistance leaders to Tokyo Tower. There, I arranged it so they would pick up a walkie-talkie at the front desk, and I gave them further directives through that. As instructed, Ohgi, Kallen, and two others boarded a train I specified. Virtually everyone on the train was under the effect of my Geass. I ordered Kallen via walkie-talkie to come with the others to the front car. I had cleared everyone out of that car with Geass, and removed any cameras. I put out the lights, too. Now all I had to was wait.

I changed into the costume I had made the previous night. The pants and the dress-shirt, with its long, pointy-ended coat-tails, were a dark indigo color with golden trimming. At the collar I wore a white cravat. The boots and gloves were black. My helmet, with its five spikes on tops, was also black, except for the front part, made of an indigo-tinted plastic. I could see through this plastic but others could not see my face from the outside. There was a retractable plate over my left eye so I could use Geass while still wearing the helmet. Over it all was a cape, black on the outside and red on the inside, and big enough to wrap around my whole body like a cloak. I always kept within my dress coat the hand-gun with which I had killed Clovis. A supply of ammo had been easy to find in Shinjuku. With my small breasts bound and a voice modifier installed in the helmet, there was no easy way to tell my sex.

Soon my guests arrived, and Kallen began at once by asking if the ceasefire and the murder of Clovis two days ago had been my doing. I ignored her question and said to the five terrorists, "I welcome you. On this train ride, you should have seen a view of the new Tokyo on your right: a city of Britannians built upon the sacrifices of the Japanese. On the left you should have seen the crumbling ruins of the old Tokyo, your own city, a place sucked dry by the Britannians. There exists between you and Britannia an insurmountable gap. It's enough to make anyone despair."

"And that's exactly why we fight," said Ohgi boldly, fists clenched. He was tall and buff, with skin a little darker than the others, and black hair similar in appearance to a small afro, with sideburns next to his ears. It was rare to see a Japanese man with traces of African, several generations back. The terrorist leader wore a red headband and a bulky, reddish-brown coat that made him look even bigger. "We of the resistance," he said, "will defeat the Britannians or die trying."

I told him, "It won't do anyone any good if you 'die trying.' And you're mistaken at the core of your mission. Acts of terrorism are not enough to stop Britannia. Your terrorism is nothing more than childish harassment. Remember this. Your enemy is not 'the Britannians,' but the Empire of Britannia. If you're going to fight, then fight a war! Unlike with terrorism, war tries to avoid involving civilians. Prepare yourselves and consider the weight of justice."

"Don't f*** around with us," Kallen spat, insulted. "Maybe you're right, but that's easier said than done! You want to lead a war? Ha! How can we believe in someone who won't even show us his face?!"

"That's right," Ohgi agreed, though much more calmly than Kallen. "Please show us your face."

"I will do that, in a way. But I won't be literally showing you my face. I'll show you the face of my power. I'll show you my face as someone who brings results. If I work a miracle, it should win you over." I smiled inside the helmet. If I could convince three or even two of the terrorists to go along with my plan for tonight, we would win. We could save Suzaku. My Geass, along with a certain bluff I had up my sleeve, would ensure victory. All I needed was another pair of hands to help with the practical side.

Reluctantly, Ohgi and Kallen agreed to help me. The former was a man of discernment, who could tell there was a chance that I was not lying: that I really could make the impossible possible. The former was a stubborn but loyal girl; she volunteered for the mission simply to show that she was a follower of Kaname Ohgi. As we spent the day preparing for the rescue mission, Kallen said over and over that there was no way this could be pulled off by only three people. She was about to see just how wrong she was.

The first step in the plan was stealing Clovis' personal transport, which wasn't very well guarded now that he was dead. It was a breeze to use my Geass to acquire the flamboyant white-and-gold vehicle. Finding the "poison gas" capsule that the green-haired girl had come out of three days ago was also easy. I had Ohgi and Kallen help me move it onto the back of the vehicle. Then the three of us scouted out the area where Suzaku would be paraded through the streets. We found a suitable escape route and set up several hammocks of trampoline material at certain locations. Finally, I did some information gathering and research and discovered that the person in command during the ceremony would be Margrave Jeremiah Gottwald, a member of the "Pureblood Faction" of Britannia. Since Clovis' death, the Margrave had been appointed Deputy Governor General, and nobody at execution could disobey him. Based on what I learned about him, it would be a cinch to manipulate him and his "pureblood" friends.

Before we set out that evening, I found myself alone with Kallen, while Ohgi was fetching guns for all of us from his base in Shinjuku. "Kallen Kozuki." I addressed her using the last name of her mother, which I had found out during my information gathering stage. "What do you think of the value of a promise?"

She had to think a minute before answering. "A promise made by a person of honor is sacred," the redhead stated. "My brother Naoto never went back on his word, and I never will, either. Naoto made me promise to keep up the good fight if he died. I'll gladly sacrifice my life to keep that promise."

"I feel similarly," I confessed. "I made a promise long ago to a person I love. A promise to fulfill that person's wish. I'm willing to do anything imaginable to make it come true. I'll keep my word, even if it means starting a war." I noticed that Kallen looked sympathetic, but confused. Why was I telling her this? "I simply want you to know that I'm just as motivated as you and Ohgi," I explain. And it's true. I was driven by three strong reasons. Firstly, I wanted a world that was more fair and just, because Nannaru and every other disabled or weak person would be happier in such a world. Secondly, I wanted to destroy Britannia because of how much I hated that crooked country and its despicable royal family. Thirdly, and most importantly of all, I wanted to fulfill my promise to Suzaku.

 _"I bet I can change the whole world in only ten years. By the time I'm Empress and you're my Knight, the world will be a gentle place without wars."_


	7. Ideology

**6: Ideology**

I rested on my knees, with my hands tied behind my back and my arms bound to my sides, riding on a square vehicle with low walls and no roof so that I could be plainly seen. Two soldiers stood beside me with automatic guns at the ready. Just off the side of the road, several hundred Britannian citizens formed crowds and stared at me with disgust. My vehicle moved slowly behind Jeremiah Gottwald's Sutherland Knightmare, the top of which was open, so that everyone could see him standing tall and grim with his arms folded. Two more Knightmares rolled along on their wheels on either side of me, and behind me was a fourth. Jeremiah was a resilient fighter, as was the woman knight Villetta Nu who piloted the machine behind me. Not even terrorists could do much to fight four Knightmares run by the ferocious pureblood faction. They, plus my two guards, were the only security deemed necessary.

As dusk gathered, and the bright street lamps came on, the procession I was riding within came to a halt. I could hear Jeremiah's voice as he talked through the radio communicator in his Kngihtmare. I couldn't make out the exact words, but it seemed somebody had arrived to "crash the party."

In a moment, I saw interloper come into view, driving Clovis' person vehicle down the road toward Jeremiah. The vehicle looked like a long, white-and-gold car in the front, with room for a driver and a passenger, but in the back it was more like a truck or a covered wagon. On top of the car part, just in front of the covered back part, the banner of Britannia hung down. As I watched, it went up in controlled flames, revealing a darkly clothed, helmeted man (or disguised woman) behind it, standing boldly for all to see. Jeremiah drew his pistol, demanding who was defiling Clovis' car.

"I am Zero," announced the helmeted person. He must have been using some kind of mini-microphone, because his (or her) voice carried loudly enough for me and those around me to hear.

The crowds started murmuring, and a few individuals shouted; it was clear everyone thought this Zero person was a terrorist. If he was, however, surely he was acting far too foolishly. Jeremiah seemed to think the same. He actually laughed. "Let's start by having you remove your mask," he said.

Zero raised his right hand and brought it close to his face, as if he was indeed going to remove the helmet. However, instead, he snapped his thumb and middle finger in some kind of symbol. In response, the metal roof and four walls, which had covered back area of the car, crumbled down dramatically. Now it was possible to see what was in the back of the transport. It was a round metal container big enough for a human to fit into, with different pipes, locks, wheels, and bars sticking out of its sides.

The purebloods and I instantly recognized this as the same type of container stolen three days ago by the terrorists: a container for poison gas. It didn't occur to me that it was actually the same one and thus empty and harmless; I thought it was a second capsule, and this time it was the real deal. Jeremiah was of the same opinion, taking a sharp intake of breath and grimacing. The crowds of onlookers didn't know exactly what was going on, or they would have fled. They didn't know that Zero had just effectively taken every single one of them hostage. The moment he opened the capsule, they would be in danger.

"Would you like to try shooting me?" Zero taunted, as Jeremiah shakily pointed his gun that way. "You should know what will happen if you do that. The contents will be released. Now, I command you set that young man free."

"Kururugi Suzaku is charged with high treason for killing Prince Clovis," Jeremiah growled, stalling for time. "We can't just hand him over."

"But you are wrong, Jeremiah," replied Zero, calm despite the brazen disrespect he was showing by addressing the Deputy Governor without any title, and by his first name. "Kururugi Suzaku has been falsely charged. He is not the culprit. The one who killed Clovis was me!" The outrage of the crowds was clear. Zero had a little trouble speaking over their hateful or fearful shouts. "This is not a bad deal," he stated. "For sparing life of one Eleven, you can save the lives of several hundred Britannians."

"That's enough!" cried Jeremiah furiously. "You will be punished for masquerading around in the Prince's personal car, and threatening everyone here!" He signaled the two Knightmares that had been on either side of me, and they moved closer to Zero, with their huge guns brandished.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Zero still sounded unruffled. "If you do, I will announce Orange." As the crowds and I watched in puzzlement, wondering what "orange" meant, Zero tapped his foot on the roof of the car, signaling the driver to move forward. Now he was within twenty feet of Jeremiah, and about on the same height level as him. "If I die," he went on, "then 'Orange' will be publicized."

Jeremiah looked confused, but Zero didn't give him the chance to speak. If I had been closer, I could have seen part of Lelucia's helmet retract itself, revealing her left eye. But I couldn't see that from my position; all I could be sure of were the words Zero spoke. "Exercise all your might to let us pass." Here he referred to himself and the driver. "Do the same for that man." Here he referred to me.

Like magic, Jeremiah's attitude changed instantly. "I understand," he told Zero. Then to the guards beside me he said, "Let that man go free."

Everything happened very quickly after that. Villetta Nu objected loudly and demanded to know what was going on, but Jeremiah ignored her and again ordered my release. One of the Knightmare pilots stood down as instructed, but Villeta Nu still looked like she might shoot me at any moment. The two soldiers had no choice but to cut my bonds, and to my surprise, I found that the will to live was strong within me. The fourth Knightmare pilot shouted at the Deputy Governor to stop playing around, and asked what he was planning. Again Jeremiah repeated his order to let me go.

"This is an order, Lord Kewell!" he emphasized. "No one will interfere!"

With no other option, I left the open vehicle to which I had been chained, and walked right up to Zero. (I saw the car driver—I believe it was a woman—start to sneak away and blend into the crowds.) Unable to stand for this, Villetta Nu tried to fire her Knightmare's gun at me, only to find herself blocked by Jeremiah in his mech. It seemed bizarre to me that Jeremiah would actually come to blows with another member of the purebloods, but that's what he did. At the same time, Zero pressed a button on a remote he had pulled out of his coat pocket. The capsule opened up, and pink-colored gas spewed out with an ugly hissing sound. The Britannian onlookers finally realized they were in danger and started panicking and screaming.

The road we were on, 3rd Street, passed over a smaller set of unused roads leading to a Ghetto area below. From here on the overpass, it was a fifty foot drop down to the streets below. Before I could say anything to Zero, he (or she) wrapped me up in her cloak and pushed the both of us off the edge of the overpass. We landed safely on one of the many nets of tough trampoline material that a third terrorist had been running around and setting up. This man also had a getaway car ready for us. Zero pulled me along—and I noticed it was difficult to do so because I was about three inches taller and probably thirty pounds heavier—until we reached the getaway car and climbed in. The third terrorist, a big man with fuzzy dark hair almost like an afro, served to drive us away at high speed.

Originally, I had planned to try my utmost to die that evening. I would have refused Zero's help, and purposely put myself in the line of fire from Villetta's guns. Perhaps I would have actually shot myself rather than letting Zero rescue me. However, since Lloyd had told me that Lelucia was still alive, my attitude changed completely. I was happy to be away from the parade leading me to my death. I was thrilled. I will never forget the wild feeling of free-falling down from the overpass, with Zero's arms around me and her cloak covering us both. It seemed almost romantic.

I now owed everything to Zero. On the other hand, I had already decided I didn't want to join up with this amazing rebel leader. As long as I had the will to live, my convictions and principles came along with it. I believed that acts of terrorism at this point were wrong, and certainly starting a bigger conflict was out of the question. I wanted the Elevens to live peacefully, and slowly change Area Eleven to a place where the Japanese were treated fairly. I wanted to work my way up to being a Britannian Knight, and with that power, do good deeds, fix any corruption I could, and set a good example. The road with the least loss of life sounded best to me, just it had ten years ago. I was convinced that Britannians would not slaughter any more Elevens, provided that they stopped their acts of terrorism, and that once Britannia had achieved conquest of all its Areas, most of the wars of the world would end. The only thing I could do was become a Britannian that treated people fairly, and encourage others to do the same.

We stopped in Shinjuku, at an old, run-down factory warehouse that looked like it had been unused for ten years or more. I saw about half a dozen terrorists sitting on the stairs outside the entrance of the warehouse, but it was too dark to see their faces. Besides, I was more interested in following Zero into the building. He (or she) tied a blindfold over my eyes, saying, "Forgive me—this is just temporary. I need to breathe for a few minutes without that ghastly helmet. I'm afraid I can't have anyone finding out my identity." I didn't argue, and thus unable to see, I relied solely on my ears. I heard Zero removing the helmet and sighing in relief. It definitely sounded like the sigh of a female.

"I couldn't help but notice the bruises on your face," she said, and though her voice was vaguely familiar, I couldn't place it. (Lelucia was talented at doing different voices, and just then she was imitating Princess Cornelia, a very deep-voiced woman.) "The Britannians treated you unjustly. Now you know how they operate. That country is rotten. If you wish to change the world, become my ally."

"You," I began, finding my voice dry and weak—I had only been given three small cups of water in the last three days, and no food. "Did you really kill His Highness Viceroy Clovis? Why would you do that?"

"I'm starting a war, after all," Zero replied. "One doesn't need a reason to kill an enemy leader in a war."

"What about the poison gas?" I asked, trying my best not to sound angry. To be honest, even if the crowds had all been Britannian, they were still civilians. Threatening civilians was something I couldn't easily forgive, let alone killing them with poison gas. However, Zero assured me that had all been a bluff. The capsule contained only a small amount of a harmless pink-colored gas that any chemistry student could make in their spare time.

"The result in the end is that nobody died tonight," the strange woman stated.

"Result?" I repeated. "I see. So that's how you think. It's true that Britannia isn't worth serving as it is now. But that's why I'm going to change it into a worthwhile country from the inside out. And I believe that results are meaningless if they're achieved with methods that are wrong. Will you release me now? I'd like to return to my commanding officer."

"Are you an idiot?!" cried Zero, and I was surprised by how upset she sounded. "They'll kill you!"

"I don't think so," I replied, taking slow, cautious steps toward the exit since I was still blindfolded and unable to see. "You claimed you killed Clovis. You said it on live, nationally broadcast television. Britannia doesn't hate me quite so much that they would continue to try to kill me after this. For one thing, you're the more likely culprit from any perspective. For another, I'm a valuable soldier who is extremely compatible with Knightmare frames. If I stay here, the army will call me a traitor. However, if I return now, my loyalty will be made clear. The people who wanted me dead are those of the pureblood faction, and they'll be in chaos for a while after the stunt that Jeremiah Gottwald pulled tonight. If I thought I was going to die, I wouldn't go back. I still have a reason to live, after all."

"You're right that you probably won't die." Zero approached and, to my befuddlement, embraced me from behind. "But I still don't want to go. Please, come to my side. We need someone like you. No," she corrected herself in a whisper, "maybe it's just me. I need you. Come to me."

Being so close to Zero, I could detect her scent; it was alluring, and somehow slightly familiar. I felt emboldened by the fact that I was going to live after all. I felt like I should do something special to show gratitude for having my life saved. And I felt not quite like myself, because I hadn't eaten in three days. These reasons made me turn around and lean my body against Zero's. I put my arms around her and kissed her. She was receptive. We kissed for several long seconds, our tongues sharing a silent conversation while our hearts raced. I had expected Zero to be insulted by me making a move on her, but if anything, she seemed too responsive. The kissing was heating up. I broke away forcefully.

"That was a thank-you for saving my life," I said stiffly, turning my back to the woman. I could hear her putting on her helmet, so I untied the blindfold around my eyes. "Of course, a kiss isn't a fair exchange given all you've done for me. So listen. I swear on my honor as a Japanese man that I will remain silent about any information I've gleaned tonight. The location of this warehouse. The number of terrorists I saw gathered outside. The fact that you're a woman. I won't reveal any of it. I'll also do you a favor. If I'm sent out to battle in the Lancelot again, and I have to clash with your men, I won't kill them. I'll force them to surrender or use their ejection rockets. It's only natural. Your forces are slim. And I value life."

With that statement, I started walking out the door. Just briefly, I looked back behind me. Zero was on her knees on the ground, with one hand reaching out toward me, as if she didn't want me to go. I didn't hear a single sob, but I saw her trembling slightly, and I suspected she was shedding silent tears. It took a lot of effort to turn around again leave, but I did it. Firstly, it was because I was stubbornly convinced my way was right, and that I shouldn't join forces with a terrorist. Secondly, I turned my back on her because there was someone else that already had my heart. Lelucia. She was alive, and I had to find her. As soon as I reported back to the officers, and got permission to leave, I would seek her out at once.

Of course, I had no idea that I was about to meet a new contender for my heart, a person who would speak to my soul and change the way I viewed the world forever. That is, Euphemia li Britannia.


	8. Euphemia Li Britannia

**8: Euphemia li Britannia**

While Lelucia was getting to know C.C., I also met someone who quickly became very special to me. After rejecting Zero, I returned to 3rd street, verified that no civilians had been killed, and surrendered myself to Governor General Jeremiah Gottwald. He was being accused of all sorts of unpleasant things after he let me and Zero go free. I spent the night in a cell again, and was told that the office of Governor General would be passed to Princess Cornelia li Britannia. The next day, I was officially acquitted of all charges and suspicions.

I reported to Lloyd Asplundh and Miss Cecile, but they told me to a take a day off for myself. So, feeling quite aimless, I started walking away from the headquarters area wearing sunglasses and a navy blue cloak to make my identity less obvious. Yes, I had been exonerated, but my face was everywhere on the news and online. I was known widely as the Eleven originally suspected of killing Clovis and as the son of Japan's last Prime Minister.

I wanted to go find Lelucia right away, but all the negative attention I had been receiving weighed on me heavily and filled me with doubts. Would Lelucia even want to see me? She used to say she hated Britannia, but supposing that was no longer true, would she want to be associated with the son of the Daijin? With an Eleven formerly suspected of killing her half-brother? It was cowardly, but I couldn't let myself see Lelucia yet. I was too afraid of rejection.

There was a building near the military headquarters where Princess Cornelia was rumored to be staying with her Knight and her personal guard squad. If I had given this any serious thought, I would have realized it was likely that Cornelia's little sister would be staying there too. As things were, though, I didn't care. As I walked by aforementioned building, I suddenly sensed something: a shadow from above. I looked up, saw a girl falling, and instinctively reacted, catching her just in time. If I hadn't been there, she would have been seriously injured, and if she had hit her head, she would have died.

The girl had long, fair hair, the kind of blond that looks almost pink in the sunlight, and wore a frilly white dress of expensive materials. She looked about my age, maybe a year younger. In a way, she reminded me a longer-haired, lighter-skinned, and lighter-voiced version of Lelucia. Her eyes were violet-colored, and she was tall, at about 5'8". Her body was nearly as thin as Lelucia's, and her breasts were B-cups at most, but she did have that feminine hour-glass shape to her hips and waist of which Lelucia shared little. Most members of the Royal Family were widely known and recognized because they appeared in public often. I didn't identify this girl as Princess Euphemia because she was one of the few that principally stayed away from the public eye and devoted herself to her private education.

"I'm sorry," Euphemia said apologized as I set her gently down on her feet. "I didn't think anyone would be passing by at this time of day. I tried to time it so there wouldn't be a patrol or military personnel..."

When she made eye contact, she smiled and looked pretty, but I knew somehow that it was forced. Though she had clearly put on makeup to hide it, I could still tell she had been crying. I sincerely hoped that such a beautiful young lady hadn't seriously been trying to kill herself, but I didn't know what else to think. She had jumped from three stories up. Scratching at my hair and clearing my throat, I replied.

"I apologize for having to touch you, but I only acted on instinct. I didn't expect anyone to be falling from the sky." I tried to make it sound humorous. "What in the world were you doing, if I may ask?"

Unlike Lelucia, who hid her feelings well most of the time, Euphemia was a terrible liar. "Well," she stammered, "um… you see…! The truth is, I'm being followed by some very bad people! So would you be so kind as to help me? I just need someone to walk with me until I'm sure I've lost them."

I didn't believe her, but I didn't have anything better to do, and to be honest I was extremely attracted to this girl. So I agreed to help. I let her set the pace as we walked, and sure enough, she wasn't moving at all like someone fearful of pursuit. She moved gracefully and slowly, looking at every city monument, garden, park, or grove of Sakura trees that we passed. It seemed like this poor girl hadn't been outside in a long time and had never had the chance to see the sights of this area of Tokyo.

I cheered up, thinking it could be a lot of fun to show her around and maybe buy her some food or a souvenir. It was almost like a date. Euphemia smiled constantly and hummed tunes, enjoying the May weather. Surely then, I thought, she hadn't been attempting suicide. Nobody could look this pretty and pleased if they had been contemplating their death only moments before. That's what I assumed, anyway.

"I haven't introduced myself yet, have I?" Euphemia suddenly realized. "I am…" she paused, thinking, and I could tell that whatever name she was about to give wasn't her real identity. "I am Euphie."

"Euphie," I repeated, liking the sound of it, even if wasn't her actual name. I started taking off my sunglasses and saying, "My name is—"

The girl interrupted me, telling me not to remove my shades because, after all, I was now a famous person. "So you know who I am?" I asked, genuinely surprised. This girl was obviously Britannian; why would she want to go on a date with some dirty and suspicious Eleven? Euphie said my name to prove she knew who I was. "You lied about being chased by bad people, didn't you?" I asked, now more curious than ever to know who this girl was and what the hell she was thinking.

It turned out Euphie was a bit of a ditz. Forgetting my question, she ran over and kneeled down next to a stray cat who happened to be passing by. It was a definite male, fur mostly dark, smoky grey, with a black spot over one eye and a black tail-tip. Euphie began making meowing noises at the cat as if speaking to it; and if that wasn't embarrassing enough, she wasn't even good at it. Her "meows" sounded nothing at all like the real thing.

At first the tomcat looked frightened and aggressive due to the girl's sudden approach. But as she continued meowing and slowly reached out to him, the feline nosed at her hand and then rubbed his head against it. He even let Euphie pick him up, so perhaps he was used to human handling. The excited Euphemia brought the cat over to me where I stood a few yards away in the shade of an old oak.

That's when I discovered that cats hate me. The dark-colored cat bit me soundly as I held out my hand to pet it. It hurt more than I expected. Euphie laughed, and I thought, "What the hell. If it makes her happy, let's sit down with this damn animal for a few minutes." So we sat down on some stairs in a nearby park, bringing the tomcat along. He liked Euphie just fine, but growled at me. I sighed and said that my affection for cats was an unrequited love.

"It's always kind people who have cases of unrequited love," stated Euphie.

She thought I was kind? "Excuse me," I began a bit stiffly. "Why did you lie about people chasing you?"

"Are you concerned about me?" Euphie dodged the question.

"Well, yes," I admitted. After all, this ditsy girl had almost killed herself today. "And I'm… curious."

"If that's so, please accompany me for a little longer," said the Princess cheerfully. Meanwhile, the stray cat bounded away, chasing after a rat foolish enough to show its face in the daylight.

I agreed to keep her company. Though I was annoyed at first that she wouldn't give me straight answers, I soon loosened up and realized I had no business prying into her personal life. She must have had her reasons. I should just be glad at the chance to have a date with such a gorgeous girl about my age. Before long, I found myself having a good time, if only because it was uplifting to see Euphie so happy.

We did some window-shopping, and I bought crepes for both of us. We chatted all the while. I found out Euphie was from the motherland of Britannia, and had only arrived here in Area Eleven a few days ago. She said she was too busy with her education up till now to go out and have fun like a regular high school student. She had already finished the equivalent of a G.E.D. and she was only sixteen.

I tried asking why she had decided to jump out of a third story window, but she changed the subject, saying she wanted to enjoy today because it was her last day off. It was hard to imagine her working a part time job; I of course didn't realize she was talking about time off from her duties as a Princess and as the Vice Governor General under Cornelia.

When I told the girl she could have spent her day off with someone else, like another Britannian, Euphie insisted that she had wanted to spend time with me. To be honest, hearing that from her pleased me to no end. I was more than happy to oblige when she asked me if I would take her to one more place before the sun set.

"I shall take you wherever you like, Princess," I said with a traditional western bow to royalty. Of course, in my mind, I was only teasing her. I didn't yet know she was actually a real princess.

"Very well," said Euphemia; "then I'd like to go to Shinjuku, please."

She made the request with such a serious look, so there was no question that she understood what had happened there recently. I hadn't yet met a Britannian who cared about the tragedy in Shinjuku. I was happy to find one. So I took Euphie to a place on the edge of the Shinjuku Ghetto where a great number of stakes and poles and makeshift grave markers had been stuck in the ground. These weren't actual grave sites, but reminders of the many who had died here. People had left gifts, flowers, and food offerings at the feet of many of the stakes. Some of the stakes had ribbons tied around them, and they swayed in the sad-sounding breeze. The grass and the first layer of earth had been completely blown or burned away in fire or explosions, leaving only hard, dusty, greyish earth underfoot.

Euphemia knelt down at this gloomy site and closed her eyes as if offering prayers to the spirits of the deceased. This was primarily a Japanese tradition, but this Britannian girl must have read about it, and was trying to replicate the practice out of respect. I knelt beside her and did the same. My eyes were closed, so I didn't see when Euphie began to cry. But I soon heard the sound of her small, half-muffled sob, and asked what was wrong. If wondered if she was shedding tears for this loss of life so unrelated to her, or if there some deeper reason.

At that moment, however, we were interrupted by the sounds of men shouting and arguing nearby. I looked around and saw two young Britannian men holding cameras as if this was some fun tourist attraction. Three Japanese men, thinner and lighter but rougher-looking than the Britannians, had surrounded them threateningly. It looked like a fight was about to break out.

Honestly, I wanted to see those brats get beat up, but I knew that any Elevens who raised their fists against rich young Britannians might very well pay with their lives. I had to prevent that. I yelled at them to stop, and arrived just in time to keep one of the Elevens from punching one of the Brits. He shook me off him and instinctively tried to swat at me, but only succeeded in knocking off my sunglasses.

The three Japanese men, in their ragged, sleeveless shirts and rusty-colored bandannas, recognized me at once. They called me a slave and a dog of the Britannians, and asked how I could even still say I was Japanese. That made me furious, but I tried my best to hold in my anger. It was only natural these people didn't understand. I tried to talk some sense into them, but the irritable man who had thrown the punch earlier attacked me this time. I brushed his punch aside, gripped his wrist and his shirt, and used his own momentum to flip him completely over as he came on.

"Please stop this," I requested calmly. "I've received training. I don't want to hurt my comrades."

"What the hell do you mean, comrades?!" That was the response the angry Japanese man gave as he got back to his feet. However, he seemed to understand things better now. He signaled to his two companions and the three of them left, but not without spitting on the ground near my feet. I thought the drama was finally over, but then the two Britannian brats started complaining. One of them said his camera was broken because a filthy Eleven knocked it out of his hands. He demanded to know why I hadn't killed those three men, and I was shocked to find he was perfectly serious.

"You've killed plenty of Elevens before, haven't you?" asked the chubby young man. "This is no different. They were causing trouble. You should have killed them. Some Honorary Britannian you are. Little dog, you should what your masters say!"

Euphie seemed to appear out of nowhere, and put all her weight into slapping the impertinent man on the side of the face. "I won't allow you to insult this man any further!" she exclaimed.

Much to my surprise, the two heavy Britannian boys looked at her with awe and something close to shame. They cursed but quickly walked away, finally leaving us in peace. I was extremely thankful for Euphie's timely action. I didn't know what I would have done to that man if she hadn't interceded and slapped him for me. I might very well have murdered him. I still couldn't believe what he said.

Shaking off the last of my indignation, I turned to Euphemia. "Those men recognized you," I said with certainty. "Forgive me for being so persistent, but I need to know in order to treat you with the right respect. You' must be the daughter of a prominent Britannian noble, right? Who exactly are you?"

The girl took a deep breath before replying. "I am the Third Princess of the Holy Britannian Empire and the sub-viceroy of Area Eleven, Euphemia li Britannia."

For a few awkward seconds, I stood there gaping at her, astonished. Then I got down on one knee, put my right hand over my heart and said, "Your Highness! I was unaware, but I have been rude to you!" Simply by treating her as a normal person and not as royalty, I might have insulted her.

"Not at all, Suzaku," said Euphemia kindly. "I enjoyed every bit of our time together." So she said, but she looked close to tears again. "I almost made a mistake today," she admitted, beginning to open up at last. "I decided on something prematurely. But then you came along, and I thought, why not allow myself to spend one more day of happiness before I give up? And as we spent time together, and I learned more about Area Eleven, I decided that giving up would be cowardly. This Area needs me. It need someone who will help stop the discrimination, and atone for the actions of my brother."

Sometimes, I could be quite simple-minded, but at other times, or in certain contexts, I could pick up quickly on what was left unsaid. "So did try to kill yourself," I said grimly, as the sun started to set and dusk rolled in. "This morning, you through yourself from the third story window, hoping you would die."

"You're probably thinking I'm crazy," Euphie responded with a sad smile.

"No, Your Highness." I decided to be honest with the princess. "I think I know how you feel. At least, I know very well what it's like to want to die. I've struggled with that for a long time, until just recently. Even now, sometimes I'm not sure I want to live. But I am a little puzzled, Your Highness. Surely you haven't done anything so terrible that it warrants your death. Why did you wish to die?"

"I have always possessed a melancholy personality. As I grew up, I became increasingly aware of what my country was doing. In the last ten years, we've subjugated a third of the world. We directly caused hundreds of thousands of deaths. We'll soon come to blows with the European Union, meaning another massive war will start. In all eighteen Areas we've taken so far, discrimination and injustice run rampant. Even in our own homeland, the common people are oppressed, with all the power and wealth taken by the ruling class. Britannia's system of government has changed somewhat over the years, but we are still a monarchy at the core, and thus we disregard the voice of the people too often."

I started falling in love with Euphemia then and there as she spoke those earnest words. She could not abide unfairness, and she grieved at the violence that filled the world. Her thoughts and ideals were similar to mine. She went on, "Britannia's corruption begins within the Imperial Family. Of course, I love my family, but I hate the way our father makes all of his offspring compete and try to do outdo each other. I hate the way that the strong and bold always come to power while the weak and disadvantaged are cast aside. All of this has weighed on me since I was old enough to start understanding it."

"I understand your sorrow, Your Highness. But none of that," I assured the young lady, "is your fault."

Euphemia sighed forlornly. "Perhaps you're right in a literal sense. I haven't killed anyone. But because I'm a Britannian Princess, and part of the Imperial Family, I feel I am guilty by association. And I lament my own good fortune and privilege while most of the world is plagued with hatred and trampled underfoot by my country. It has been painful to come to Area Eleven and see the Japanese people so grossly mistreated. I adore my elder sister Cornelia, but she doesn't understand my feelings at all, and I doubt she will do anything to change the discrimination in this colony. I've been feeling so powerless. What can I possibly do? That's part of why I impulsively jumped today."

Tears began to fall slowly from Euphemia's violet eyes, leaving trails on her fair-skinned face. "I've also been especially morose since I heard that my older half-brother, Clovis, was killed. He was a poor leader, and ordered the deaths of innocent Elevens several times, but I'm still so sad to lose a brother. And speaking of losing people, Area Eleven is where two more of my siblings were killed seven years ago. Lelucia and Nannaru. I loved them so dearly. Even now, thinking of them is heartbreaking."

As the princess spoke, we had walked a ways, leaving Shinjuku behind. We came to an old stadium or arena of some kind, an open stage of dusty earth surrounded on three sides by rows of stone seating. It was a lonely and ruinous place, but with the sunset giving everything tinges of orange and gold, even this place had a kind of beauty to it. Euphemia and I walked side-by-side through the center of the dirt field, and while she talked, the princess reached out and took hold of my hand gently. I didn't dare refuse, but held her hand firmly. I wanted to comfort her.

"I see that you have many reasons to be depressed, indeed," I said in a low voice. "I'm sorry if talking about all this was painful. You don't have to say anymore."

I offered to walk Euphie back to the building near headquarters where the new Viceroy Cornelia was staying. However, before we could get going, we were once again interrupted by a show of violence.

Into the stadium came five Knightmares, four of which were ganging up on the fifth. Each of the four carried gigantic, deadly lances capable of piercing Knightmare armor, along with their usual heavy guns. They were Sutherlands, so they were also each equipped with a destructive metal projectile that could shoot out and destroy another machine; the sharply pointed tools, shaped like arrow-heads, were attached to the Knightmares by long wires, so they could be reeled back in and used more than once.

From the magnified voices of the pilots, it soon became clear that the four aggressive mechs were members of the pureblood faction out to kill Jeremiah Gottwald, who piloted the fifth one. Since he had let me and Zero go free yesterday, they were lynching him for perceived treason.

At first, I didn't think there was anything I could do, but then I heard the familiar voice of Lloyd calling out to me. He and Miss Cecile had arrived in a military transport (something between a truck and a trailer), having heard from Villetta Nu that something nasty was going down. So of course, Lloyd had brought the Lancelot along in the transport, eager to gather more data on its use.

My task was to save Jeremiah. I had little choice in the matter, but I was happy enough to do it anyway. Saving him (who had tried to kill me) from a dire situation and having him in my debt sounded pretty nice, as did the sight of seeing him in such a vulnerable position. Some seem to think my excessive kindness means I'm naïve, but in reality, I'm fully aware of and contented with the fact that it's a petty and self-serving kindness.

The Lancelot far outclasses mere Sutherlands, as I had proved before. I forced the four bullies of the pureblood faction to stop, skewering each of their lance-bearing arms with four of the metal disc-on-wire projectiles. When they fired back with their own wired projectiles, I gracefully dodged two of them, and sliced the other two with my new MVS, Maser Vibration Sword. One of the Knights tried to strike me with the blade fixed to his Knightmare's arm, but I kicked his legs out from under him and made his whole machine tumble. Villetta Nu also showed up in her Sutherland; she was a fierce female Knight, and though she was a member of the pureblood faction, she fought to protect Jeremiah because they had experienced similar situations (both manipulated by Zero and missing some memories).

I didn't expect any further trouble now that the attackers had seen my speed, agility, and MVS weaponry. To my surprise, however, Lord Kewell of the bitter purebloods threw a new weapon at Jeremiah, one that had been recently developed and only given to a few high-ranking Knights and Officers. It was a Chaos Depth Charge, a canister that, when activated and thrown, unleashed a heavy, powerful onslaught of laser-fire. It was enough to shred any fifth generation Knightmare into slivers. And at the exact moment when Lord Kewell threw it, someone ran onto the battle scene.

Euphemia. I shouldn't have left her alone so suddenly. She must have been certain that showing herself to the Knights and telling them off would convince them to stop their attack. So she ran in front of Jeremiah's mech as if to protect him; she had no way of knowing that a Chaos Depth Charge had just been thrown.

If not for me and the new defense system Lloyd and Cecile had installed, Euphemia would have been guaranteed to die. But I moved in front of her and protected her with the two Blaze Luminous shields on Lancelot's arms. This newest, high-tech type of beam shield could repel most weapons or types of enemy fire currently in use. Even so, the explosion of lasers from the Depth Charge charred and damaged my Knightmare's legs and shoulders. Euphie, though, was safe.

Villetta Nu instantly recognized Euphemia and spoke for all the Knights present when she exclaimed, "Did that Eleven just use his body as shield?"

Recognizing Euphemia and hearing her order to spare Jeremiah had the desired effect. The purebloods backed down. They must have been ashamed that they put Euphemia's life in danger, and that they had been outdone by an Eleven valiant and loyal enough to save the Third Princess.

Thanks to that incident, I received three great benefits. Firstly, I had my revenge against Jeremiah, who now felt indebted to me, and was forced to admit I was a better pilot. Secondly, I proved my piloting prowess before Britannian witnesses, mastering all the new technology. Thirdly, I saved Euphie's life. I suppose you could say a fourth benefit was that I won new fame as "The Eleven who saved The Princess." Honestly, though, I wasn't happy about the new attention, because it had come at the cost of Euphie's safety.

I had one last chance to speak with her in private before returning to the trailer where Lloyd and Cecile were waiting. "I enjoyed your company today, Your Highness," I began. "I am truly unworthy of the honor you have given me. Yet, if I may be so bold, there is one more thing I want to hear from you." I moved so that I stood directly in front of Euphemia, blocking her path and holding her gaze unblinkingly. "Promise me that you will never try to kill yourself again. I can't leave you alone unless you swear."

Euphemia had the kind of smile that banished all worry and gloom when she really meant it. She showed me that gorgeous expression and said, "I already told you. Jumping out of the window today was a mistake. It would be cowardly to give up before I've even had the chance to do anything to help Area Eleven."

"Then why did you run out into danger during the battle just now?" I asked a bit too pointedly.

Far from being defensive, Euphie blushed and looked ashamed. "I'm sorry I worried you again," she told me. "I wasn't trying to die. Not that time. I just didn't think I could stand seeing those four kill that one man so unfairly. I was reckless. I owe you my life, so the least I can do is make promise you want to hear. Kururugi Suzaku, I give me word I will never die by my own hand or my own will. Talking to you and being away from the army and my family has encouraged and strengthened me. I refuse to give up. I will make this Area a better place. Once I've made up my mind, the only way to stop me is to kill me."

Seeing her so fired up lifted my spirits. I already felt like we shared a deep connection. Before she left, Euphie told me she would make a request to the army to allow me to attend high school when not on missions. I had mentioned that I would like to go to Ashford Academy because I had a friend there.

I didn't actually expect anything to happen so soon, but the next evening (a Monday), Miss Cecile brought me the news. I was supposed to start classes as a transfer student tomorrow, and I would be in the same homeroom as Lelucia Lamperouge. I'm not sure which made me happier: the time I had spent getting to know Euphie, or the chance to see Lelucia again. Either way, I was ecstatic.


End file.
